Isolation and molecular characterization of causal agent of blue mold on L. and its control by Griseb.

Blue mold pathogen, isolated from infected L., was identified as a species through morphological and molecular characterisation. Internal Transcribed spacer (ITS) region of ribosomal DNA (rDNA) was utilised for DNA sequencing. Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) analysis has found the maximum similarity index of the fungus to be 82.39% with the Uncultured clone (Accession: MF535522). So, the isolated specie is the first reported specie of the genus that infects onion. A phylogenetic tree was constructed to establish a relationship of the isolated fungus with the most relevant species reported on GenBank. Extracts of Griseb. were evaluated against the isolated fungus as a potential biocontrol agent. Among the five tested methanol concentrations (0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2% and 2.5%) of each plant part (root, inflorescence and foliage), 0.5% root extract showed maximum growth retardation, i.e. 89%. For bioassay-guided fractionation, the root extract was partitioned in -hexane, chloroform, -butanol and ethyl acetate. Ethyl acetate (1%) was proved to be the most potent one. Phytochemical screening has confirmed the occurrence of terpenoids, tannins, saponins and alkaloids. The applied molecular approach has deduced that the specie collected from Pakistan might be novel. This study can be concluded that contains potent phytochemicals which might be used as antifungal agent against species.