Phytosynthesis of silver nanoparticles by Paulownia fortunei fruit exudates and its application against Fusarium sp. causing dry rot postharvest diseases of banana

Over the recent years, banana cultivation has increased in the South-Eastern provinces of Iran. Management of Fusarium diseases in banana poses considerable yield loss as the application of chemical and biological treatments remains challenging. At the present research, about 10 Fusar- ium isolates causing dry rot on banana fruits were isolated and based on the pathogenicity test, isolate MSN-7 was considered as the most pathogenic isolate. Isolate MSN-7 was identified by us- ing the ITS (ITS1 and ITS4) genomic region. BLAST results showed that it had the highest similar- ity (99%) with Fusarium chalmydosporum (MN533778.1). The objective of our research was to ex- amine different concentrations of Silver nanoparticles (SNPs) biosynthesized by Paulownia for- tunei L.) Fruit Exudates as a novel antifungal agent for reduce of pathogencity of Fusarium dry rot of banana. The synthesis of SNPs was conducted utilizing Paulownia fruit extracts as an environ- mentally friendly biosource. The exudates derived from Paulownia fruit demonstrated the capa- bility to generate nanoparticles with an average size of 46 nm. Analysis conducted using a trans- mission electron microscope (TEM) revealed that these nanoparticles possess a polyhedral struc- ture. Furthermore, when applied at concentrations of 10, 20, 40, and 80 ug/ml, these biosyn- thetic nanoparticles exhibited the ability to inhibit the growth of Fusarium fungus mycelia, as well as induced the destruction of the fungal hyphae.