ISSN: 2593-9173
Karthick Raja Namasivayam, R S Arvind Bharani and Moinuddin Raqib Ansari
In the present study, natural occurrence of major fungal biopesticide Nomuraea rileyi (Farlow) Samson associated with agricultural field soil in an area around TamilNadu, India was studied adapting culture dependentmethod. Agricultural field soil samples were collected from ten different sites. Soil dilution method was used toisolate N. rileyi. A total of 123 isolates of N.rileyi were obtained. Among the 10 sampling sites, Nomurea rileyi was isolated from 4 sites belonging to Hasthampatty (Salem) Rajakoil (Vellore) Vadavali (Coimbatore), Pullarakottai(Viruthunagar), High frequency of fungal occurrence was recorded in vadavali (60%) followed by Pullarakottai(17%), Hasthampatty (13%,) Rajakoil (10%). Non Nomurae rileyi strains belong to Beauveria sp and Metarhiziumsp were also isolated. Fungal occurrance was highly influenced by soil physico-chemical parameters. Effect ofmetallic nanoparticles such as silver, copper and the respective nanoparticles coated with chitosan on the posttreatment persistance of N. rileyi was also studied.Distinct effcet on the growth of N. rileyi was recorded in copper nanoparticles with high concentration.