Studies of Fungal Infection on Foot Rot Diseases of Black Pepper (Piper nigrum L.)

• Main Author: Nabilah, Kamalludin
• Format: Final Year Project Report
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, (UNIMAS) 2022
• Subjects: S Agriculture (General)
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/39629/1/NABILAH%20BINTI%20KAMALLUDIN%20ft.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/39629/

Black pepper (Piper nigrum L.), the King of Spices is one of the most important spice crops cultivated in Sarawak. The cultivation and production of black pepper is limited by many diseases of which foot rot disease caused by Phytophthora capsici is the most important and serious disease. All parts of the plant are susceptible and prone to the infection at any stage of the crop especially during the rainy season which creating huge losses of black pepper production. The pathogen was isolated from the infected root and leaves and identified as P. capsici based on the basis of cultural and morphological characteristics. The cultural characteristics of P. capsici were recorded as rosaceous type colonies like aerial mycelium, rarely stellate or radiating. The fungal hyphae were hyaline, non-septate and smooth with umbellate pattern of ovoid to ellipsoid papillae. The molecular identification also has been done using internal transcribed spacer ITS sequencing and species-specific primers, namely PC1/PC2, CAPFW/CAPRV2, CAPFW/CAPRV1, and PCAP/ITS1. Out of the eight different culture media tested on P. capsici, oat-meal agar and Rye agar A were supported maximum colony diameter of 90.00 mm with highest mycelial density rating. The pathogenicity of P. capsici has been proved on the leaves of black pepper which produced the dark lesion after 3-4 days being inoculated with zoospore suspension of P. capsici.