Plant Protection, 01 (02) 2017. 91-95 91 Available Online at EScience Press Plant Protection ISSN: 2617-1287 (Online), 2617-1279 (Print) http://esciencepress.net/journals/PP IDENTIFICATION OF SEED-BORNE MYCOFLORA ASSOCIATED WITH PEANUT (ARACHIS HYPOGEA L.) IN POTHWAR, PAKISTAN Muhammad Farooq Aslam 1 , Gulshan Irshad 1 , Hafiza Madeeha Khan 2 , Salman Ghuffar 1 , Farooq Azam 1 1 Department of Plant Pathology, Faculty of Crop and Food Sciences, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, Pakistan. 2 Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Article history Received: 7 th October, 2017 Revised: 5 th November, 2017 Accepted: 25 th November, 2017 Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) occupies the second largest area among the oilseed crops after mustard and rapeseed in Pakistan. It is the main legume crop and primarily grown as oilseed crop. Due to the presence of high percentage of fatty acids in its oil, its nutritional properties are considered as favorable for human and animals. In the present study, seed-borne fungi were recovered from different varieties of peanut with their incidence percentage. Data revealed that all the varieties were affected by the fungal species however, 68 % of Aspergillus niger on agar plate method and 64 % on standard blotter paper while Rhizopus nigricans had the least percent incidence of upto 22 % and 6% on agar plate method and standard blotter paper respectively. It is concluded from the present study that due to potato dextrose agar content, agar plate method found to be suitable for germination seed borne fungi are known to affect adversely seed germination and fatty acid composition due to the production of toxic metabolites in the peanut seeds. Keywords Peanut, Arachis hypogaea, seed-borne, mycoflora Corresponding Author: Muhammad Farooq Aslam Email: farooqch.96@gmail.com © 2017 EScience Press. All rights reserved. INTRODUCTION Peanut (Arachis hypogea L.) which belongs to the family Leguminosae and also known as ground nut, monkey nut, manila nut, earth nut and ground bean. In the genus, only A. hypogaea L. is significantly important economically. Botanical name of groundnut is derived from the Greek word Dzarachisdz meaning Dzlegumedz and hypogaea meaning Dzbelow grounddz, referring to the formation of pods in soil (Pattee and Stalker, 1995). Peanut (Arachis hypogea L.) is known as very important legume crop also considered as oilseed crop which is cultivated on an area of 99.4 hectares in Pakistan with average production of approximately 1017KG/Hectare (Khan and Uddin, 2009). Major part of peanut world production is used in human consumption, for processed food as a raw ingredient, such as sacks and peanut butter and also produce oil and flour. (Kaya et al., 2009; Nakai et al., 2008; Passone et al., 2008). Seeds of peanut consists high nutritional and commercial value due to presence of adequate amount of protein, carbohydrates, fatty acids, fiber contents, beside vitamins, calcium and phosphorus (Nakai et al., 2008). It contains 44-56% oils and 22-30% proteins, therefore being considered as an excellent source of energy (564 kcal/100 g) (Andersen et al., 1998). It is grown mainly in rainfed areas of Pakistan and among total peanut production area, about 84% lies in Punjab 13 % in KPK province and 3 % in Sindh (GOP, 2008). Peanut