Detection and molecular identification of dominant seed mycoflora associated with fennel cultivars

Abstract

Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) is a medicinal plant belonging to the Umbelliferae (Apiaceae) family. The seeds have a fragrant odour and a pleasant aromatic taste. Five different fennel cultivars viz., GF 2, GF 11, GF 12, AF 1, and AF 2 were used to detect seed mycoflora. Seven fungal species from five different genera viz., Alternaria alternata, Macrophomina phaseolina, Fusarium oxysporum, Curvularia lunata, Aspergillus niger, A. flavus and A. fumigatus were detected by agar plate method. Among seven different mycoflora, the incidence of A. alternata was found more prevalent and it developed more colonies in all five cultivars. Molecular identification of dominant seed mycoflora of fennel cultivars i.e., A. alternata was performed via PCR amplification and sequencing of the Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region of fungal DNA (rDNA) with universal primer ITS1 and ITS4. The ITS primers produced an amplicon of 530 bp for A. alternata. The sequence of the rDNA region (Accession no. ON613536) was aligned and analyzed in the NCBI nucleotide BLAST. It showed 97.94 per cent similarity with already reported A. alternata (MN268767.1, MN268766.1, and MH894277.1) sequences.