Manganese sulfide nanospheres as mycocidal material and priming agent for fungi‐infested rice seeds
Radha Ahuja, A. S. Sidhu, Anju Bala
Abstract
Abstract Manganese sulfide nanospheres (MnS‐NSs) prepared in situ via sonochemical process were characterized to investigate the effect of nanoscale MnS on antifungal potential against mycopathogens of rice viz . Fusarium verticillioides , Drechslera oryzae and Curvularia lunata . MnS‐NSs dispersed in aqueous medium resulted in significant inhibition of growth of all the test fungi (ED 50 ≤ 18 μg/ml) at concentration much lower than standard commercial fungicides (captan and carbendazim with ED 50 ≥ 230 μg/ml) against respective fungi. The maximum per cent inhibition (98 ± 1.4) was recorded against C. lunata with a minimum ED 50 value of 14 μg/ml, followed by D. oryzae and F. verticillioides with ED 50 values of 17 and 18 μg/ml, respectively. Nanopriming of rice seeds with MnS‐NSs at 35 μg/ml for 8 hr resulted in significant reduction in seed rot (76%) and seedling blight (89.13%) along with enhancement in percent germination, root length, shoot length, dry weight and vigour index of seedlings by 33.7%, 55%, 66.3%, 85.3% and 89.3%, respectively, compared with control. Hydropriming of seeds was found to control the seed health parameters less effectively than nanopriming.