Aims: Corn is grown primarily for human consumption. It is considered as the second most important cereal crop after rice in Asia. Many diseases affect this crop due to planting of susceptible hybrids. This research is aimed to characterize the causative agent of northern corn leaf blight disease in Malaysia, caused by Exserohilum turcicum. Methodology and results: Leaf samples were collected from infected farms of 2 corn growing areas of Peninsular Malaysia in 2015. A total of 5 fungal isolates were examined for cultural, morphological and molecular properties, and based on the results, the five isolates were identified as E. turcicum. The conidial shapes were observed to be elongated and spindle. Cultural characteristics showed that variation existed among the isolates in colony growth and colour. Mycelia growth rates of the isolates were significantly different on potato dextrose agar (PDA), corn meal agar (CMA) and potato sucrose agar (PSA) media, growth on CMA was faster than on PSA and PDA. The isolates were grouped into three groups based on colony colour i.e. light gray, gray and dark gray. The isolates were categorized into 2 groups based on growth namely, moderate growth and profused growth. The number of septa ranged from 5-7 to 7-10 representing isolates ET002 and ET003, respectively. Similarly, conidial length varied from 56.7 µm to 89.44 µm for isolates ET002 and ET003, respectively. The pathogenic variability tested on Thai Super Sweet (TSS) corn variety, showed that isolates ET001 and ET003 were more aggressive while isolate ET005 was less aggressive among the isolates tested. Conclusion, significance and impact of the study: Both morphology and molecular results showed that, the isolates were identified as E. turcicum. The findings of this study will serve as a baseline for future studies and will help to minimize losses in yield.
Zea mays

Aims: This study aimed to isolate and evaluate the indigenous fluorescent Pseudomonas spp. with bio-control potential against Rhizoctonia solani and promoting growth in chilli seedlings. Methodology: A total of 120 fluorescent bacterial were isolated from the healthy chilli rhizosphere soil from the seven major chilli cultivation localities in Terengganu, Malaysia. Only 115 Gram negative fluorescent isolates were further invitro screened for antagonistic activities against R. solani and plant growth-promoting properties. The 50 most effective fluorescent Pseudomonads antagonist against R. solani with minimum percentage inhibition of radial growth (PIRG) of 65% were selected. Hierarchical cluster analysis was further conducted with two dendrograms derived from SPSS Statistic 20 to facilitate the comparison between these 50 isolates for antagonistic and growth-promoting properties. A total of 40 fluorescent isolates within the most potential cluster were further selected and identified using 16S rRNA sequencing. Thirty four fluorescent isolates were identified as Pseudomonas spp. and six isolates as Burkholderia spp. The top 13 ranked fluorescent Pseudomonas spp. from the scoring index were evaluated for seed germination and vigor index in chilli seedlings. There was no significant difference in germination rate between fluorescent Pseudomonas inoculated with control. However, vigor index of chilli seeds pre-inoculated with fluorescent P. putida (B5C1), P. aeruginosa (B3C56) and P. putida (B5C7) were significantly increased with 4684.9, 4657.3 and 4401.0 over control (P ≤ 0.05). Conclusion, significance and impact of study These selected fluorescent isolates: P. putida (B5C1), P. aeruginosa (B3C56) and P. putida (B5C7) have the potential to be developed as biofungicide against R. solani and as growthpromoter in chilli production system.
Pseudomonas fluorescens ; Rhizoctonia ; Seedlings