Abstract:
The seeds and fruits of different date palm varieties
were collected from local market and brought to the laboratory of the
Department of Biology, College of Science, King Faisal University, in
Al-Hassa, Saudi Arabia, where further experiments for isolation of fruit
spoilage and seed-borne fungi were conducted by using common technique
of wet blotter method. A total number of 100 seeds and 100 cubes (1 cm3)
obtained from the fruits (10 pieces per plate) were put on wet filter
paper and incubated at 25°C to allow the growth of fungi for a period
of 1 week. Fungal species developed on seeds and fruit pieces were isolated
on potato dextrose agar for identification. This study was carried out
during year from May 2007 to April 2008. Twenty species from 14 genera
of fungi have been isolated from 13 different varieties of date-palm as
seed-borne fungi while 39 species of 16 genera of fungi were isolated
as fruit spoilage fungi. Alternaria alternata, Aspergillus
flavus, A. niger,Fusarium oxysporumand F. solani
were the predominant species in both seed-borne and fruit spoilage
fungi.
Subscribe Today 
