Colonization of roots of eggplant and potato by Talaromyces flavus from coated seed

Talaromyces flavus (Klِcker) Stolk and Samson, a fungus that has potential for biocontrol of Verticillium dahliae, colonized potato and eggplant roots. In pot experiments with field soils, the fungus moved from potato seed tubers or eggplant seeds coated with ascospores to developing roots, including the root tips, albeit at a low density. The population of T. flavus decreased log-linearly with distance from the seed and was higher with potatoes than with eggplants. Results suggest that passive transport on the growing root is one of the main factors involved in colonization by the fungus. A monomolecular model for root colonization and soil inoculum density (R2 = 0.94) and a negative exponential model for the relationship between T. flavus soil inoculum density and V. dahliae density on the roots (R2 = 0.55) were fitted.