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Biological Control of Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes(C.Mart) Solms. Using Fungal Pathogens as Mycoherbicides: An Overview

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Microbial Biocontrol: Molecular Perspective in Plant Disease Management

Part of the book series: Microorganisms for Sustainability ((MICRO,volume 49))

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Abstract

Water hyacinth is one of the common aquatic weeds infesting most of the water bodies all over the world. It reproduces mainly through stolons irrespective of seeds. A single mother plant produces four daughter plants which can reproduce within 2 weeks and grows up into mat of 2 m thickness. It has a rapid rate of reproduction and can invade a variety of freshwater environments, which has a negative impact on the environment. An acre of medium-sized water hyacinth plants can yield over 45 million seeds. It results in a drop in oxygen levels, which lowers the quality of the water, obstructs sunlight, serves as a breeding ground for mosquitoes that spread diseases like malaria, filariasis and encephalitis that affect humans, as well as having a negative impact on aquatic life and the fisheries, irrigation, navigation, water supply and overall ecology of the infected water bodies.

Water hyacinths can be controlled using a variety of techniques, such as mechanical or physical, chemical and biological control. The best alternative to physical, mechanical and chemical techniques of controlling aquatic weeds without harming the aquatic ecology is biological control. Plant pathogenic fungi are the most promising biocontrol agent for the management of weeds. This chapter gives brief reports on ecology, habitat, problems caused by water hyacinth, pathogens, symptomatology, host range of pathogens, mass production and formulation of the potential fungal biocontrol agent.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Pathology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India

    Kannan Rengasamy

  2. Agricultural College and Research Institute, Killikulam, Tuticurin, India

    Pavithra Raj, Nivetha Andichamy & Sabarinathan Kuttalingam Gopalasubramanian

  3. Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai, India

    Ramamoorthy Vellaisamy & Uma Sankareswari Rengasamy

Authors
  1. Kannan Rengasamy
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  2. Pavithra Raj
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  3. Nivetha Andichamy
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  4. Ramamoorthy Vellaisamy
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  5. Sabarinathan Kuttalingam Gopalasubramanian
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  6. Uma Sankareswari Rengasamy
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Correspondence to Kannan Rengasamy .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Protection, Selcuk University, Konya, Türkiye

    Kubilay Kurtulus Bastas

  2. Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, India

    Ajay Kumar

  3. Department of Agricultural Microbiology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India

    U. Sivakumar

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Rengasamy, K., Raj, P., Andichamy, N., Vellaisamy, R., Gopalasubramanian, S.K., Rengasamy, U.S. (2023). Biological Control of Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes(C.Mart) Solms. Using Fungal Pathogens as Mycoherbicides: An Overview. In: Bastas, K.K., Kumar, A., Sivakumar, U. (eds) Microbial Biocontrol: Molecular Perspective in Plant Disease Management. Microorganisms for Sustainability, vol 49. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3947-3_7

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