Comparison of artificial inoculation methods for studying pathogenesis of <i>Alternaria brassicae</i> (Berk.) Sacc on<i> Brassica juncea</i> (L.) Czern. (Indian mustard)

Abstract

Establishment of disease by artificial inoculation is essential for studies of various aspects of plant pathology. Keeping this in mind, five inoculation methods were compared namely spraying, infiltration, wounding, spore suspension drop and spore suspension drop along with agarose method. The findings of the present study suggest that out of five inoculation methods used, spore suspension drop along with agarose inoculation method was most ideal as this fixed the inoculum on the target site. The mean value of number of initial disease lesions in drop plus agarose method was highest in all of the time intervals of observation namely 312.2, 484.2, 664.2, 734.2 and 799.2 at 24, 48, 72, 96 and 120 h after pathogen inoculation compared to other methods respectively. Statistical analysis software (SAS) was used to find out the significant comparison among the different methods. The spore suspension drop along with agarose method has the advantage of being accurate and precise, and it was also easy to handle the inoculated plants.

Keywords: Artificial inoculation, Brassica, Alternaria, pathogenicity, screening

African Journal of BiotechnologyVol. 12(18), pp. 2422-2426