Effects of soil augmentation by Pontoscolex corethrurus on banana plant response to fusarium wilt

Fusarium wilt is a major problem to banana cultivation worldwide and thus, effective environmental-friendly control measures for the disease is in great demand. One of the method is using endogeic earthworms of which the activities of the worm influence nutrient cycle and composition of microbes in soil. This study was conducted to assess the impact of soil augmentation by Pontoscolex corethrurus, a tropical endogeic earthworm on banana plant response to Fusarium wilt. Photographic record and scaling of external and internal wilt symptom, plant wet weight, chlorophyll content and disease severity index (DSI) were performed. Additionally, Salicyclic acid (SA) and Jasmonic acid (JA) levels of the plants were also analysed due to their significant role in plant defense mechanism against pathogen. The results showed that the presence of earthworms contributed to higher plant wet weight, chlorophyll content and lower DSI compared to treatment without earthworm in non-infected and infected banana plants. The plants with earthworm inoculation also showed one week delayed appearances of external and internal wilt symptoms. The concentration of SA in non-infected plants with earthworm treatment showed higher value (0.72±0.09 μg/g, p<0.05) compared to without earthworm. For JA, the concentration in week 1 was doubled for infected plant with earthworm (0.96±0.01 μg/g) compared to without earthworm (0.47±0.03 μg/g). Thus, earthworms were proposed to improve plant basal defense viaintensifying the plant defense hormones. The present study suggested that soil augmentation by P. corethrurus could improve plant growth, delayed appearance of wilt symptom and improve phytohormone production for plant defense system.

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