EVALUATION OF ANTIFUNGAL ACTIVITY OF ZINC OXIDE NANOPARTICLES AGAINST ALTERNARIA SOLANI THE CAUSAL AGENT OF TOMATO EARLY BLIGHT DISEASE

Abstract

One of the multifunctional inorganic nanoparticles is zinc oxide due to its effective antifungal activity. This study was designed to evaluate the antimicrobial activities of ZnO nanoparticles prepared by each of chemical and biological fabrication methods against Alternaria solani using the agar well-diffusion method. To characterize the changes in morphology of fungal hyphae treated with ZnO NPs Scanning Electron microscopy (SEM) was applied. Results proved that by increasing particle dose the effectiveness of nanoparticles was increased. Electron micrographs of the treated pathogen showed that the hypha lost their smoothness and appeared swollen, crumbled and shrunken. Results of application under greenhouse conditions demonstrated that 12.5 and 50 ppm of chemically fabricated ZnONPs and biologically fabricated ZnONPs, respectively, were the most effective due to their significant decrease in the percentage of diseased severity up to 21.25 and 25.50%, respectively, 14-days post pathogen inoculation compared to the control treatment. As a conclusion, the results could be suggested that ZnONPs could be considered as an effective fungicide in agricultural and food safety applications.