Assessment of endophytic fungi cultural filtrate on soybean seed germination

Abstract

Soybean seeds have high amount of isoflavones but its germination is often confronted with a variety of environmental problems resulting in low germination rate and growth. To overcome this in eco-friendly manner, we investigated the influence of cultural filtrate (CF) of gibberellins-producing endophytic fungi on soybean seed germination. Three endophytic fungi namely: Chrysosporium pseudomerdarium, Aspergillus fumigatus and Paecilomyces sp. were previously isolated from the roots of soybean plants. The culture filtrate application of the three endophyte resulted in significantly higher rate of soybean seed germination, germination percentage, relative seed germination percentage, peak value, germination value, shoot and root length, germination index and vigour index. Among the endophytes, A. fumigatus significantly increased the rate of germination, shoot and root length and vigour index. Same trend was noted in germination percentage and relative seed germination percentage for all the endophytic fungi. However, C. pseudomerdarium was the only one that enhanced germination index. The enhanced soybean seed germination by endophytes can be used for seed priming and hence improved crop plant growth under extreme environmental conditions.

Key words: Chrysosporium pseudomerdarium, Aspergillus fumigatus, Paecilomyces sp., soybean, seed germination.