Browsing by Author "Mequanint Lemlem"

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    Post Harvest Biological Control of Blue Mold on Orange Fruit
    (Addis Ababa Universty, 2014-06) Mequanint Lemlem; Abate Dawit (PhD)
    Orange (Citrus sinensis) is among the most important fruit crop of Ethiopia. Blue mold is the most aggressive economically important wound parasite post harvest disease of orange fruit. The present study was under taken to isolate, characterize and identify indigenous biocontrol microorganisms (yeasts) occur on phyllospher of orange, mango, apple, lemon and avocado plants for their antagonistic activity against orange blue mold development as well as characterization and identification of orange blue mold causing organism has been done. In this study a total of 58 yeast isolates were isolated from fruit surfaces and leaves of orange, lemon, apple, mango and avocado plant. All of them were screened to test their antagonistic effect against orange blue mold development. Among the 58 isolates 9 isolates showed antagonistic activity against the development of orange blue mold. Three isolates namely isolate Y3, Y10 and Y16 were particularly effective in this respect with the antagonistic level of 32%, 36% and 38.7% respectively. All of them achieved significant disease suppression (P<0.005). The identity of the potential antagonists and the pathogen had been studded based on their morphological, biochemical and physiological characteristics. Isolate Y10 and Y16 were identified to the genus Rhodotorula and Y3 was belongs to Trichosporonoides and the pathogen was identified as Penicillium italicum. From this study, it can be concluded that isolate Y16 showed the highest antagonistic activity than the other yeast isolates and Penicillum italicum is one of the responsible fungi for orange blue mold disease in Ethiopia. Keywords: antagonist yeasts, biocontrol, Penicillium italicum, orange, yeast.