Seasonal diversity of seed borne micro-fungal flora in storage on Solanum melongena L.

Environmental seasonal variation pattern, vegetation diversity, pre- and post-harvest climate determine periodic distribution and concentration of microfungal propagules on seed coats in any geographic area. The seeds play crucial role in crop productivity on the globe and are vulnerable to attack by diverse group of fungal pathogens and spread of diseases, in turns adversely affect the global agricultural economy. Prevalence of enormous, high concentrations of diverse microfungal propagules on stored seeds of Solanum melongena L., widely considered as some pathogenic, phytotoxic and few carcinogenic, have been investigated in a set of storage climate for a year employing standard blotter paper technique, screening four hundred seeds from mixed samples of diverse geographic location of Vidarbha Region (M.S.) and incubating them for seven days. It has been proposed for an establishment of seasonal variation patterns as well as its possible correlation with climatological factors. Results revealed that out of a total fifty fungal isolates fall under thirty genera, eleven species of Aspergillus are among the most predominant components of mesophilic seed mycoflora. Deuteromycota contributed greater count of isolates followed by Ascomycota while Basidiomycota had least count. Winter season dominated by nearly half of a total population of isolates while summer season had 14 per cent count. Nearly 28 per cent population remained throughout in storage period while 10 per cent isolates occurred frequently. The storage period of winter season belonged to the months of December, January and February was seemed to be supportive for fungal infestation, rapid proliferation and sporulation, exhibiting greater level of percent incidence. Level of infestation for mesophilic isolates declined while it was enhanced for thermo-tolerants in summer season. Fungal count and per cent incidence varied periodically during storage. Report on seasonal diversity provides a basis for estimating functional role of fungal organism in an ecosystem.