Control of sheath blight disease in rice by thermostable secondary metabolites of Trichothecium roseum MML003

The aim of the study is to investigate the biocontrol mechanisms of Trichothecium roseum MML003 against the rice sheath blight (ShB) pathogen, Rhizoctonia solani as the former exhibited strong antagonistic activity against the latter. It has been found that T. roseum MML003 did not show any hyperparasitic interaction against R. solani. Further, it did not produce siderophores and hydrogen cyanide. However, the culture filtrate of T. roseum MML003 strongly inhibited the mycelial growth and sclerotial formation, its germination and viability, which proved that the biocontrol activity is antibiosis-mediated. The extracellular crude antifungal metabolites of T. roseum MML003 were thermo and photo-stable. Potted plant experiment showed that the crude metabolites of T. roseum MML003 effectively reduced the ShB disease in rice up to 47.7%. Thus, this study assumes significance as it provided further scope for the identification of antifungal metabolites from T. roseum MML003 and their possible use against sheath blight disease of rice.