Cultural and morphological characterization and identification of 12 fungal isolations in seeds of Leucaena leucocephala cv. Peru

Abstract

The objective of this study was to identify the fungal agents associated to seeds of Leucaena leucocephala cv. Peru
stored under ambient conditions, from the cultural and morphological characterization of 12 pure isolations; they were obtained from planting the fungal structures (vegetative and/or reproductive), in Petri dishes (9 cm diameter) which contained Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) and Malt Agar (MA). The dishes were incubated for 10 days at 25ºC, alternating 8 h light/16 h darkness or at constant darkness, according to the requirements of each organism. Seven fungal agents associated to the seeds were identified, which were classified taking into consideration the cultural and morphological characteristics, and they were corroborated with the taxonomic keys. This allowed to group: Penicillium expansum Link, Rhizopus stolonifer Ehrenb. Ex Fr., Cladosporium sphaerospermum Penz., Chaetomium indicum Corda, Alternaria alternata (Fr) Keissl., Pestalotia sp. and Trichoderma sp. Such characteristics constitute an important tool for the identification of fungi to the species level, for which new studies with isolations #9 and #11 are recommended in order to complete the identification to species level in the case of genera Trichoderma and Pestalotia; as well as to identify the fungal species of the other isolations.