REYNOLDS OBENG EXPERIMENT I

ID# 10214871

CROP 403 (PLANT PATHOLOGY)

DETERMINATION OF AIR AS APOSSIBLE SOURCE OF INOCULUM INTRODUCTION When farm produce is bruised or damaged, the inner tissues are exposed to rotting by microbes, mainly fungi and bacteria. The source of these bacteria and fungi has been quite speculative. Some believe they are from the air. To satisfy this speculation, an experiment was conducted at the plant pathology lab to verify that abundant and diverse microbes exist in the air. MATERIALS AND METHODS Two Already prepared media (Potato Dextrose Agar) was made available and labeled. One was opened and exposed to the air for 1 minute and closed afterwards. The other set served as control and therefore was not exposed to the air. Both set was then put in the same polythene bag and incubated at room temperature for 72 hours. Readings was further made at 24, 48 and 72 hours respectively. RESULTS Below is the results obtained as observed PDA (OPENED) NO. OF COLONIES OBSERVED 24HRS Fungus Bacteria 0 0 48HRS 2 3 72HRS 3 4

PDA (CONTROL)

NO. OF COLONIES OBSERVED 24HRS 48HRS 0 0 72HRS 0 0

Fungus Bacteria

0 0

DISCUSSION From the results obtained, 24 hours had no visible colonies. This could be due to the fact that colonies had been formed already but too small to be seen. At 48 hours, colonies of bacteria and fungi had already been formed in the exposed petri dish. The control petri dish had no recordings for both fungi and bacteria colonies. CONCLUSION This is a clear indication that diverse microbes exist in the air and as such serves as a possible source of inoculum.

REYNOLDS OBENG

ID# 10214871

EXPERIMENT II PATHOLOGY)

CROP 403 (PLANT

ISOLATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF YAM ROTTERS INTRODUCTION Cultivated yams belong to the family Dioscoreaceae and the genus Dioscorea ( Coursey 1967). They are staple foods in the tropics. Yam tubers after peeling can be cooked in various ways by boiling, roasting or frying. Nutritionally, yams are mainly carbohydrate food, but contain about 1-2% protein, which is high compared with other tropical root crops (Coursey, 1967). Though yam naturally has a periderm which is difficult for microorganisms to breach, it is easily wounded by rodents, nematodes and man during weeding, harvesting and post-harvest handling. Such wounds facilitate the penetration and development of rot microorganisms (Noon, 1978). The magnitudes of these problems have made many people to express fears that yam production in Ghana may decline in the near future. A study was therefore carried out by level 400 crop pathology class to isolate and identify pathogens causing yam rot. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was conducted at the Crop Science Department in the CS 86 lab. Already prepared water Ager media was made available and rotten yam tuber was obtained and cleaned. Small sections of the yam tissues containing the advancing margin of rot and adjoining healthy tissue were surface sterilized by immersion in 1% sodium hydrochloride solution for about a minute. The specimen was then transferred with sterilized forceps on to Water Ager (WA) plates wrapped in polythene bags and incubated at room temperature. Afterwards, observation was made daily for mycelia growth. Slide containing culture was observed under a compound microscope and the features of the organisms compared with those described in a standard manual of fungi.

RESULTS The species identified from the sample were Aspergillus niger, Sclerotium rolfsii and Fusarium spp. DISCUSSION According to Ogundara, et al. 1970, rot in the store is believed to commence from the soil/field and progress while in storage. Thus the reason why the above microorganisms found associated with the rot. CONCLUSION This result reveals that a wide range of fungi are responsible for the rot of yams. Yams should be handled with care to avoid mechanical injuries which may pave way for the entry of pathogens

REFERENCES OGUNDARA, S.K, NAQVI, S.H.Z and EKUNDAYO, J.A. fungal associated with soft rot of yams in storage in Nigeria. Trans Br Mycol soc. 1970; 55:445-451. COURSEY,D.G. Yams. Longmans London 1967. P.230