PHYSIOLOGICAL CHANGES AGAINST MELOIDOGYNE INCOGNITA IN RHIZOBACTERIAL TREATED EGGPLANT UNDER ORGANIC CONDITIONS

*A. Ibrahim1, A. A. Shahid2, S. Noreen3 and A. Ahmad1,4

1Institute of Agricultural sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore-54590, Pakistan
2Center for Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB), University of the Punjab, Lahore-54590, Pakistan
3Institute of Pure and Applied Biology, Bahauddin Zakariya University. Multan-60800, Pakistan.
4Institute for Medicinal Plants, College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong (Central China) Agricultural University
*Corresponding Author Email: asmaibrahim12@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Field trials and laboratory experiments were conducted to evaluate the efficacy of rhizobacterial treatments for controlling Meloidogyne incognita (Root Knot Nematodes, RKN) on brinjal crop. Biochemical and histological analyses of treated plants were performed to check the extent and mechanism of activity of bacterial treatments. Disease percentage, Shoot length, Shoot weight, Root length and Root weight were deliberated and significant differences were recorded in these aspects. Findings also illustrated significant difference in the quantity of total phenolic contents of control (0.3g/kg) and RB5 (3.4g/kg) plants. Quantification of peroxidase (PO) revealed the significant distinction in control (0.6g/kg) and treated plants (2.54g/kg), whereas peroxidase contents were also variable among different rhizobacterial treatments. In case of terpenoids control (0.29g/kg) and RB1 (0.54g/kg) were notably varied from RB2 (0.83g/kg), RB3 (1g/kg) and RB4 (1.02g/kg). Here, RB5 again showed maximum amount of terpenoids (1.23g/kg). Findings declared all the treatments significantly effective than the control treatment with reference to Ascorbic acid and Polyphenol oxidase (PPO) contents. Collectively, analyses determined the ability of brinjal plant to activate its defenses more rapidly against M. incognita under the influence of rhizobacterial treatment RB5.
Key words: Biochemical defenses; Disease incidence; Induced systemic resistance; Root galls.