ABSTRACT
Rhizosphere fungi are an important group of microbes that affects plant, animal, and human life directly or indirectly. To understand their heterogeneous behavior in shaping the terrestrial ecosystem, it is mandatory to understand their distribution and probable interaction with soil and plant systems. Fungi inhabiting soil were assessed and found that the Dueteromycetous fungi dominated the total fungal population in comparison to oomycetous, zygomycetous, and ascomycetous fungi. Climatic conditions and substrate availability affected the succession of fungi in different months. There was no specific order of succession; the distribution of fungi depends on their enzymatic ability to degrade the substrate during the course of decomposition period. Out of six decomposing fungi isolated from decomposition substrate, Trichoderma harzianum yielded the highest percentage of crude protein (27.99%) with biomass of 375 mg, whereas the lowest protein value (17.91%) was recorded in case of A. niger with biomass of 422 mg. Among phosphorus solublizing fungi (PSF) isolated from calcium rich soil, maximum P-solublization was recorded from Penicilliun citrinum isolate (PC2) followed by Aspergillus niger isolates in liquid Pikovskaya's. The decomposing fungi were also used for reducing the pre-composting period of vermicompost besides 90making it suppressive toward soilborne pathogens of tomato. The weed plants were also decomposed by beneficial fungi and were used to reduce the tomato wilt incidence caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici (FOL). The culture filtrate of the most commonly occurring fungal species of Aspergillus was combined with Trichoderma virens to make it more effective against Rhizoctonia solani. Significant inhibition of mycelia growth of R. solani was recorded with culture filtrate mixture of A. niger + T. virens, and A. ochraceous + T. virens.
