Production and evaluation of secondary metabolites released by Trichoderma viride BHU V2 subjected to biotic and abiotic stresses and their suppressive effects on Southern Blight of Okra

Abstract

Plants are constantly exposed to a wide range of biotic and abiotic stresses simultaneously or consecutively in natural environment. Abiotic stresses such as continuously rising temperature as consequences of global warming is affecting crop productivity by adverse effecting morpho-anatomical, physiological, biochemical and genetic changes in plants (Wahid et al., 2007; Drigo et al., 2008). Agricultural production as well as global food security is directly affected by temperature as it controls the rate of plant metabolic processes that ultimately influence the production of biomass of fruits and grains (Schmidhuber and Tubiello, 2007; Ainsworth and Ort, 2007). High average seasonal temperatures can increase the risk of drought, limit photosynthesis and respiration rates, alter plant water relations, decrease the membrane permeability and hinder flowering along with fruit set in both tropical and temperate crops (Tubiello et al., 2007; Xu et al., 2014). newline