Survey and Isolation of Rice False Smut Pathogen Ustilaginoidea virens (Cooke) Takahashi
Arunprakash Soodamani
Department of Plant Pathology, TNAU, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India.
Paranidharan Vaikuntavasan *
Department of Plant Pathology, TNAU, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Roving survey has been conducted during first quarter of 2023 at selected paddy fields of Cauvery Delta zone (Tanjore, Perambalur) and Western zone (Coimbatore, Erode) of Tamil Nadu to assess the Percent Disease Incidence for rice false smut disease in which the maximum disease incidence was recorded in Erode district (40%). The infected spikelet were observed with the characteristic symptoms where the individual rice grains turned into large, fluffy and velvety green balls, later these balls turns hard during maturity. The pathogen Ustilaginoidea virens was isolated from the infected smut balls in potato sucrose agar medium in which the fungus appears as small white colonies after seven days of isolation.
Keywords: Rice false smut, survey, isolation, Ustilaginoidea virens