Abstract

                                Pisolithus tinctorius (Pers.) Coker is an ectomycorrhizal fungus that formsan abundant wealth of biomass in the forest ecosystem, with an untappedtreasure of bioactive compounds and secondary metabolites havingmultifaceted use in health and agrochemical industries. The hidden potentialof this fungus is tapped in the current study by using MTP1 isolate ofP. tinctorius. The secondary metabolites of P. tinctorius were extracted andtested for their inhibitory efficacy against major soil-borne plant pathogensviz., Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici (Sacc.) Synder and Hansen;Macrophomina phaseolina (Goid); Rhizoctonia solani (Kuhn) and Sclerotiumrolfsii (Sacc). The cell-free culture (CFC) filtrate of P.tinctorius showed themaximum mycelial inhibition of F. o. f. sp. lycopersici (52.00 %); R. solani(51.92%) and M. phaseolina (48.23%). However, the CFC filtrate mixturedid not inhibit the growth of S. rolfsii. The GC-MS analysis of biomoleculescomposite of ethyl acetate fraction of CFC filtrate indicated the presenceof compounds belonging to the nature of fatty acids, aromatic alcohol,and flavonoids. The reduction in the growth of the test pathogens with theincrease in the concentration of CFC filtrate and the presence of severalunknown compounds in P. tinctorius warrants further study with the purifiedform of antifungal biomolecules in reducing root rots and wilts incited by thesoil-borne phytopathogens.

Key words : Pisolithus tinctorius; Metabolites; Pathogens inhibition