अमूर्त

Ecofriendly management of natural infection of viruses in papaya (Carica papaya L.) by phytoproteins, isolated from B. diffusa and C. aculeatum, alone and in combination with bioenhancers

Ahmad Najam, Awasthi LP, and Verma HN

It was revealed that the treatment of papaya seeds with phytoproteins, isolated from the leaves of C. aculeatum (CA) and mixed with bioenhancer (L-Lysine monohydro chloride) M9, was found to increase germination of seeds besides improved vegetative growth of seedlings, significant decrease in disease incidence and symptoms severity on Carica papaya plants, as compared to CA phytoprotein alone. A delay in symptom appearance along with minimum disease incidence was also observed in plants treated with CA phytoprotein mixed with M9. Significant increase was recorded in number of flowers, fruits /plant and total fruit yield. Apart from this, plant growth, plant height, number of leaves, flowering and fruiting was also increased in plants of treated plots. On the other hand, seed treatment followed by treatment of plants, since seedling stage, with phytoprotein, isolated from roots of B. diffusa (BD) and mixed with M9(L-Lysine monohydro Chloride), showed improved seedling growth, plant height, number of leaves, and minimum disease incidence with low symptom severity, significant increase in number of fruits and total fruit yield as compared with BD phytoprotein alone. Whereas, in control /untreated plants of papaya, severe symptoms appeared in the form of mosaic mottling, curling and rolling of leaves, followed by vein clearing and thickening, besides necrotic spots on fruits, petioles and stems. Encouraging results were recorded in the treatments, where modifier /bioenhancer (L-Lysine monohydro Chloride) -M9 was mixed with phytoproteins, isolated from CA or BD. It induced a greater degree of resistance than when either of the phytoprotein was used alone. The treated plants developed mild symptoms and showed significant decrease in disease incidence. The percent protection was increased as the number of plants showing systemic infection was also reduced. The leaves of treated plants were lust green in color with robust plant growth, better flowering and fruiting and the crop yield was also increased, upon addition of M9 to phytoproteins especially to CA.