Abstract:
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) contributes 18% of the global production of grain legume and
serves as an important source of dietary protein. Fusarium cause’s destructive diseases to legume
plants which results 50 % crop loss of the worldwide. Beneficial microorganisms associated with
plants with biological control potential have been studied as a possible strategy to reduce host
resistance to Fusarium wilt plant diseases. The aim of this study was to identify and asses the
endophytic bacteria and fungi that can reduce disease incidence of Fusarium and to assess the
plant growth promotion ability of bacterial endophytes. Simple random sampling method was
used to select chickpea growing farms nearby areas of Gonder town. A total of 60 chickpea
plants was collected purposively based on distribution. A total of 30 endophytes were obtained
from surface sterilized healthy roots of chickpea samples collected from different chickpea
cultivated fields across Gondar. The isolated endophytes were screened for their in vitro
antagonistic activity against Fusarium and plant growth-promoting potential of bacterial
endophytes. Several isolates belonging to three bacterial genera, Bacillus, Pseudomonas and
Citrobacter were identified using morphological and biochemical identification methods and two
fungal genera, Trichoderma and Aspergillus were identified on the basis of different
morphological features of the fungus. Endophytes isolated in this study, only 44.44% of the
bacterial isolated and 41.7% of the fungal isolated showed antagonist activity against Fusarium.
Bacillus spp and Trichoderma spp showed the highest antagonistic activity against Fusarium
pathogen. In plant growth-promoting potential of bacterial endophytes, 72.2% of the isolates
were able to produce ammonia, 61.1 % of the isolates were able to produce siderophore on
chrome azurol medium and finally only16.7% of the total isolates were positive for hydrogen
cyanide production. Some of the endophytic bacteria and fungi isolated from roots of chickpea
had antagonistic effect against fusarium. Most of the isolated bacteria have numerous plant
growth promoting activities like ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, and siderophore. Further studies
are needed to ensure the ability and effectiveness of these isolates under natural field conditions.
