Vol. 11, Issue 8 (2022)

Author(s):
Chaudhari VJ and Nakrani BR

Abstract:
Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an important food crop for vegetable oil production. Groundnut suffers from many diseases among them Aspergillus flavus has the potential to infect in the field, Preharvest, postharvest, storage and during transit. They produce a potent toxin and carcinogenic substance called aflatoxin which has a great impact on human health. An experiment was conducted on the cultural, morphological and aflatoxigenic variability of A. flavus isolates from the seeds of different forty samples of groundnut and were named AF-1 to AF-40. Maximum mean colony diameter was recorded in eighteen isolates, whereas least in AF-37 after seven days of incubation. The colour of the mycelium ranged from yellowish green to dark green. The central part of the mycelium ranged from light green to dark green. The reverse site colony colour were light yellow, yellow, creamish yellow, greenish yellow, yellowish white and white. No sclerotia production was observed in any isolates of A. flavus in culture. The length of the conidiophore of A. flavus ranged from 240.6 to 1214.7 μm. Similarly, the width also ranges from 9.5 to 15.1 μm. Conidial diameter ranged from 3.4 to 7.5 μm. Conidial wall, observed from finely rough to smooth wall which was an important character in identification. Conidial shape was observed from globose to subglobose. During the aflatoxigenic test, isolates AF-6 was found highly toxigenic in nature and showed a dark red colour development.