Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2017) 6(8): 3176-3180 3176 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2017.608.378 A New Agar Plate Assisted Slide Culture Technique to Study Mycoparasitism of Trichoderma sp. on Rhizoctonia solani and Fusarium oxysporium K. A. Bhat * Division of plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture Wadura, Sher-i-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Mycoparasitism consists of a direct attacks by a fungus to another and leads to the destruction of some of the structures of the host (e.g. mycelium, spores and sclerotia) with the consequent harnessing of their components as a nutrient source. The process of mycoparasitism exerted by amycoparasite e.g Trichoderma sp. occurs in several successive stages. Starts with the chemo trophic growth of Trichodermato the host stimulated by molecules from the same (Chat, et al., 1981).When Trichoderma comes into contact with the host are cognition of this must occur that triggers the following steps. After the recognition occurs the coiling or sticking of Trichoderma around the host hyphae for ming gaff structures or shaped like appressoria (Elad, et al., 1983). After this, Trichoderma secrethydrolytic enzymes primarily chitinases, glucanases and proteases, which degrade the cell wall of the host (Haran et al., 1996) with the consequent assimilation of the components of the cell wall and cellular contents thereof (Elad et al., 1984). Mycoparasitism is being considered as a mechanism of biocontrol by various fungal antagonists like Trichoderma spp and G. virens and many other antagonistic fungi. As far mycoparasitism as one of the important mechanisms of action of a fungal biocontrol International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 8 (2017) pp. 3176-3180 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com Mycoparasitism by Trichoderma sp. is one of the important modes of action exhibited by biocontrol agents against host fungi including plant pathogenic ones. Its study in-vitro constitutes considerable importance while studying bio-efficacy of an antagonist against a fungal pathogen. At present there is no standard, rapid, easy and reliable method to study mycelial interaction between a possible mycoparasitic fungi and host. An easy, cheap, and rapid agar plate assisted slide culture technique is developed which facilitates the study of in-vitro mycoparasitism with ease. With the help of this technique mycoparasitism by a strain of Trichoderma sp. was studied against pathogenic Rhizoctonia solani and Fusarium oxysporium. A drastic mycoparasitism in the form of coiling and tightly sticking with occasional formation of appressoria like structures was observed while studying mycoparasitism with the help of this method. Keywords Mycoparasitism, in-vitro, Technique, Trichoderma, Plant pathogens Accepted: 26 June 2017 Available Online: 10 August 2017 Article Info