Biodiversity of mycoflora in storage of Solanum melongena L. seeds

Solanum melongena L., a highly preferred vegetable amongst the weight-conscious consumers and a cash crop for poor farmers originated from healthy seed, is vulnerable to attack by diverse group of fungal pathogens in storage and spread of diseases in crop plants that adversely affect economy of poor farmers. Fungal isolations were made from twenty stored mixed seed samples of five different cultivars and individual cultivar collected form eggplant growing farmers of Vidarbha, yielded total 54 fungal species of 30 genera, including eleven species of individual genus Aspergillus, four of Fusarium, three each of Alternaria, Curvularia, Helminthosporium and Penicillium, two each of Chaetomium, Rhizopus and Trichoderma while others had single species. Deuteromycota dominated with 44.7% isolates followed by Ascomycota (39.9%). Basidiomycota had single isolate. A total of 33 to 36 isolates were confined to seeds of individual cultivar. Aspergillus nidulans, A. sulphureus, A. sydowi, A. terreus, Sporotrichum pulverulentum, Stachybotrys atra and Syncephalastrum racemosus have been recorded for first time as new records in India. Aspergilli encountered in seeds with 4 ? 14% incidence excluding Aspergillus fumigatus (28%) and A. parasiticus (18%). Curvularia, Alternaria, Drechslera and Helminthosporium were detected as predominant pathogens with 11-13% incidence while Aureobasidium, Colletotrichum, Pythium and Trichothecium had little count of incidence. Of the total count of incidence, Deuteromycota dominated with 47.2% followed by Ascomycota (42.1%). Greatest count of fungal isolates and frequency incidence was recorded on blotter paper against agar plates. The standard blotter technique proved superior over agar plate. Cultivars Pusa Purple Cluster and Vaishali are moderately susceptible to fungal diseases.