Effect of dominant seed-borne Mycoflora on the quality of different cultivars of groundnut seeds

Groundnut or peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is a crop of global importance, also known as “King of oilseeds”. It is widely grown in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Quality of seeds play a very important role for the production of healthy crop. A seed-borne pathogen present externally or internally or associated with the seed as contaminant may caused seed abortion, seed rot, seed necrosis, reduction or elimination of germination capacity as well as caused biochemical changes in infected seeds. Over all, six fungal species belonging to three genera viz., Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Fusarium oxysporum, Rhizopus sp., Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus terreus were detected as seed mycoflora in groundnut by agar plate and blotter paper method. Aspergillus flavus Link and Aspergillus niger van Tieghem were found dominant seed mycoflora in groundnut in all ten cultivars both in agar plate and blotter paper method. Seeds of groundnut cultivars, which were inoculated with two dominant fungi viz., Aspergillus niger van Tieghem and Aspergillus flavus Link contained low oil (37.89%, 35.07%) and crude protein (21.20%, 21.85%) as compared to control (46.03%, 26.37%), respectively. While free fatty acid content increased (19.25%, 19.14%) in most of the tested cultivars as compared to control (17.63%), respectively.