Wednesday, April 23, 2008 Colting: Of good and bad fungi, etc. By Rogelio Colting R4D Corner
FUNGI covers a wide variety of species, generally speaking there are bad and good fungi.
Edible mushrooms are examples of the good ones. Examples of these are oyster and Shitaki mushrooms, wild mushrooms that grow on mountainsides during rainy season, among others. The "bad" fungi on the other hand include those which cause disease in plants and in man. Molds or "anay" are fungi.
You might be wondering what has fungi to do with strawberries, the "one town, one product" (Otop) of La Trinidad? There is a fungus called Botrytis cinerea which causes gray molds or Botrytis fruit rot of strawberry. This occurs in most strawberry farms in the locality and can cause economic loss to farmers. Infections of the fungi to strawberries start during the blooming stage.
Nature provides for check and balances however. Earlier we mentioned there are good fungi. Experts have discovered Trichoderma spp., a fungi which has certain properties or volatile compounds which inhibit spore germination of Botrytis, and deactivates its harmful enzymes. It's like the anti-biotics we take to attack harmful bacteria in our bodies. It is fungi versus fungi.
An undergraduate student at Benguet State University (BSU), Dan Saclangan, conducted a research on this area. Titled: Preliminary Study in the Field Application of Trichoderma spp. on strawberry flowers using honeybees (Apis mellifera Linnaeus) the study tested the effect of Trichoderma spp on strawberry molds.
The bees, the third party in this triangle is responsible for delivering the good fungus to the strawberry flowers.
According to the study, this involved the use of a biological control agent (BCA) box. The commercial Trichoderma was placed at the entrance of a bee colony or hive. In this way the bees would "pick-up" the beneficial fungi, on their way out of the box. Bees have fine hairs where Trichoderma powder or pollen for that matter is lodged. When these field bees visit the strawberry flowers, they deposit the good fungi on these flowers.
After three days, sample of strawberry flowers from different distances were tested for the pressure of Trichoderma. Results revealed the presence of the fungi in the flowers. The bees were able to deliver the goods to the client as far as 30 meters away.
The BCA box was designed by Enriquez Tayaotao, a bee-keeping trainer based in La Trinidad.
Bees, aside from their newly discovered task of delivering beneficial fungus to strawberry flowers, are "also good pollinators to a majority of agricultural crops."
The study Saclangan, a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, Pathology Major, was one of the entries during the Mycological Society of the Philippines (MSP) 10th Annual Scientific Meeting and Symposium, from April 15-16.
Appreciating the merits of the study, he was the first recipient of the Doctor Tricita H. Quimbo (THQ) Undergraduate Thesis award. Dr. Quimbo, Professor Emeritus, is the Charter President of the MSP. Saclangan's adviser in the study was Doctor Luciana Villanueva, College Agriculture faculty member and Director of the Semi-Temperate Vegetable Research and Development Center, BSU.
Hosted by BSU, the three-day activity was co-sponsored by University of the Philippines-Los Baños (UPLB), Philippine Council for Advanced Science and Technology Research and Development-Department of Science and Technology. (PCASTRD-DOST), Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD-DOST), Department of Agrigulture-Bureau of Agricultural Research (Da-bar), Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) and Philippine Phytopathological Society-Northern Luzon Division (PPS-NLD).
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