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Research Article Open access CC BY 4.0

Common Fungi Contamination Affecting Tissue-cultured Abaca (Musa textiles Nee) during Initial Stage of Micropropagation

Jojine S. Cobrado, Alminda M. Fernandez

Asian Research Journal of Agriculture · pp. 1–7 · Published 10 Aug 2016

10.9734/ARJA/2016/28353

Abstract

Philippines is the world’s largest producer of abaca fiber, accounting for about 85% share of the global production in 2013. Plant tissue culture technology is being widely used for a large scale plant multiplication. Even though it is possible to produce a large number of plants by micro popagation, the greatest problem in this technique is contamination. A wide range of microorganisms (filamentous fungi, yeast, bacteria, viruses and viroids) and micro-arthropods (mites and thrips) have been identified as contaminants in plant tissue cultures. Contaminants may be introduced with the explant, during manipulation in laboratory, by micro-arthropods vectors. The study was conducted at the Tissue culture laboratory and Research laboratory of the University of Southeastern Philippines, Mabini Unit, Pindasan, Mabini, Compostela Valley Province, Philippines to identify and characterize the fungal contaminants of abaca in vitro cultures. The plant tissue culture used MS medium sterilized using pressure cooker at 15 psi for 20 minutes. The explants were excised and surfaced sterilized with Sodium hypochlorite (Sigma-Aldrich Chenire) for three minutes. The excised explants were aseptically transferred to the culture medium in 20 culture bottles, labeled and incubated at 24°C for three weeks at the growth room. Fungi contaminants were immediately transferred and pure cultured unto PDA (Potato Dextrose Agar) at 28°C for three to seven days. Microscopic fungi were identified using diagnostic keys. For identification purposes, slide cultures were prepared on malt extract agar and stained with lactophenol-blue. Two species of fungi were identified as fungal contaminants of the tissue-cultured abaca in the initial stage of micropropagation. Of these genera, Chrysosporium sp. like fungus occurred most frequently (10%), followed by Aspergillus sp. (5%). These fungal species were found to cause death of the culture material by some probable sources of contaminations such as handling of plant materials, culture vessels and the laboratory.

Fungi contamination abaca tissue culture Musa textiles

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