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Erianthus arundinaceus : A New Host of Aeginetia pedunculata

Bikash Ranjan Ray and Mrinal Kanti Dasgupta 1

Sugarcane Research Station, Bethuadahari 741126, Nadia, West Bengal, India, email: brray2@yahoo.co.in; 1 Department of

Plant Protection, Institute of Agriculture, Visva-Bharati, Sriniketan 731236, Birbhum, West Bengal, India. E-mail:oikosmkdg@rediffmail.com

Key words : Aeginetia pedunculata , host, Erianthus arundinaceus , sugarcane

Citation : Ray BR and Dasgupta MK. 2010. Erianthus arundinaceus : a new host of Aeginetia pedunculata . J Mycol Pl Pathol 40(2):283-286.

Root holoparasitic angiosperm Aeginetia pedunculata (Roxb.) Wall. is the causal organism of a major wiltdisease in sugarcane grown in the command area of asugar factory at Plassey in West Bengal, India. The

parasite occurs endemically each year during rainyseason in Jul-Oct covering nearly 100 ha of sugarcaneand causes wilting of clumps prior to crop harvest. Lossin sugarcane occurred due to depletion of sucrose from

juice (59%) and ultimate wilting of clumps prior toharvest (Ray and Dasgupta 2006). Temporary control of the parasite is achieved through hand weeding, sprayingof herbicide (2,4-D Na @ 2 kg ai/ha) and crop rotationwith rice ( Oryza sativa L.), jute ( Corchorus olitoriusL.), sesame ( Sesamum indicum L.), green manuringSesbania aculeata (Willd.) Pers. or forage sorghum(Sorghum bocolor (L.) Moench.), which are usually

practiced by the farmers. Development of a resistantvariety would have been the best method for control of the parasite. In Taiwan, replacement of susceptiblevarieties with a resistant cv. NCo 310, eradicated A.indica L. from sugarcane fields (Lo 1955). But atPlassey, all sugarcane varieties grown so far aresusceptible to A. pedunculata . Attempt to breedsugarcane varieties resistant to A. pedunculata remainedunsuccessful so far because cv. NCo 310 was found to

be susceptible to A. pedunculata , the target weed pest (Ray and Dasgupta, communicated to IndianPhytopathology). The main gene source in sugarcane for resistance to diseases was Saccharum spontaneum L.which was observed as a natural host of A. pedunculata(Ray and Dasgupta 2009). As Erianthus is known for itshardiness and resistance to red rot (Sreenivasan et al .2001) and other abiotic and biotic stresses (Ram et al. 2001), it is a prospective source of genetic resistance insugarcane. Majority of clones developed throughintergeneric crossing between sugarcane and Erianthus sp. has resulted in introgression of genes for coldtolerance and red rot resistance. E. arundinaceus hashigh cellulose content and is also a good source of pulpfor paper industry (Amalraj et al. 2008). In the

Philippines, Aeginetia indica L., a similar rootholoparasite of sugarcane parasitized Imperata exaltata(Roxb.) Brongn. (Espino 1947). Imperata exaltata and

Erianthus arundinaceus are synonyms of Saccharum

arundinaceum Retz. (Quattrocchi 2006).

We investigated on the genetic resistance in Erianthus sp. against A. pedunculata at the farm inBethuadahari, West Bengal, India (8822'E, 2336'N, 15m amsl) during 2009 for its possible use in A.

pedunculata resistance breeding in sugarcane.

Materials and MethodsStalk cuttings of an unknown Erianthus sp. (local name

Khak in Bengali) was collected in 2006, from Gosaba inSouth 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, where it isgrown as a common household plant for religious uses.

The Erianthus sp. was grown at the farm and sampleswere sent to the Sugarcane Breeding Institute,Coimbatore, India for identification of the species.

Seeds of A. pedunculata were freshly collected,during Nov 2008, from dry plants grown in the base of sugarcane cv. BO 91 at Dwipchar (West) Farm of Plassey Sugar Mill, Nadia, West Bengal and stored dryunder ambient temperature in the laboratory, in double

ploythene packets before use. The roots of Erianthus were inoculated in the field with the seeds of A.

pedunculata during Jun 2009 and observations wererecorded at weekly intervals.

Results and DiscussionThe Erianthus species was identified as Erianthusarundinaceus (Retz.) Jeswiet (Sugarcane BreedingInstitute, Coimbatore Acc No. IND 07-1488). It has tallreed (> 5 m), culm solid, up to 2.5 cm across, with

perennial habit, leaf blade about 2 cm wide, profusetillering. Flowering was in the first week of Oct andonly the flowered stalk dried on maturity.

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Table 1. Morphological variation in A. pedunculata parasitizing on E. arundinaceus and sugarcane due to fallof temperature from 30C to 15C

E. arundinaceus SugarcaneMorphological featuresof A. pedunculata Sep Nov Sep Nov

Plant height (cm) 10.7 4.6 12.2 4.1Length of peduncle (cm) 2.1 0.2 4.6 0.4 Number of pedicel/peduncle 8.8 31.7 8.2 28.9Length of pedicel (cm) 6.6 0.3 6.7 0.6Length of calyx (cm) 3.4 2.6 3.8 2.7Width of calyx (cm) 2.3 2.0 2.5 2.0Length of corolla tube (cm) 6.1 3.3 6.4 3.1

Number of capsule/peduncle 4.2 19.3 7.8 17.9length of capsule (cm) 2.1 1.1 2.3 1.6

Number of seed/capsule 16470 6750 46890 8750Length of seed (mm) 0.23 0.15 0.32 0.26Dry weight of plant (g) 28 37 39 46

Flowers of A. pedunculata appeared around the base of E. arundinaceus during Sep 2009 (Fig. 1). Thegrowth of the flowers was as vigourous as in sugarcane(Fig. 3). During Nov when temp began to decline from30C to 15C the flowers of A. pedunculata showed amarked reduction in growth and development similar tosugarcane (Fig. 4) but the number of flowers increasedto make a thick mass (Fig. 2). The change of morphological characters such as plant height, length of

pedicel, peduncle and flower of A. pedunculata parasiticon E. arundinaceus due to decline of temp wascompared with sugarcane (Table 1). Adult beetles of aninsect herbivore Gonocephalum depressum Fab.(Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) were observed to feed onthe flower and seeds of A. pedunculata grown on E.arundinaceus similar to that on sugarcane (Ray andDasgupta, communicated to J Biol Control). There wasno apparent change in the length, width or weight of stalk but brix % in the juice of E. arundinaceus stalk was lowered to some extent due to the infection of A.

pedunculata without any wilting of stalk. But insugarcane reduction in length, girth, weight of stalk and

juice brix were observed with increased wilt of stalk (Table 2). Due to the fact that E. arundinaceus itself is

susceptible to A. pedunculata , any crossing programmeinvolving sugarcane and E. arundinaceus is not logical.

There may be another implication to thisfinding. A. pedunculata is a known medicinal plant(Banerjee 1993) and was listed in the Red Data Book asrare and threatened species. The characteristics of talldense canopy, perennial growth habit and resistance to

phytoparasitic wilt make E. arundinaceus the mostsuitable host for growth and reproduction of A.

pedunculata for conservation. For cryopreservation,seeds of A. pedunculata were deposited at NationalBureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi (IC No.347864).

AcknowledgementsThe authors are grateful to Dr. N. Vijayan Nair,Director, Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore 641007, Tamil Nadu, India for identification of the

Erianthus sp. and the Joint Director, Central NationalHerbarium, Botanical Survey of India, BotanicalGarden, Howrah 711103, West Bengal, India for identification of the Aeginetia sp.

Table 2. Effect of A. pedunculata on E. arundinaceus and sugarcane

E. arundinaceus SugarcaneVariables of A. pedunculata Healthy Infected Difference Healthy Infected DifferenceStalk length (cm) 520.3 530.0 + 9.7 265 193 -72Stalk girth (cm) 2.4 2.4 0.0 2.39 2.12 -0.27Stalk weight (kg) 1.27 1.30 + .03 1.07 0.61 -0.46Brix of juice (%) 7.2 6.2 - 1.0 20.1 9.6 -10.4Stalk wilt (%) 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.3 20.7 +16.4

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Figure 1. Erianthus arundinaceus infected with Aeginetia pedunculata in September (top) and in November(middle); sugarcane infected with A. pedunculata in September (bottom left) and in November (bottom right)

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Received: Mar 4, 2010 Accepted: May 29, 2010