Herbicidal efficacy of harzianums produced by the biofertilizer fungus, Trichoderma brevicompactum

Miaomiao Yin,Opemipo Esther Fasoyin,Chen Wang,Liwen Zhang,Baoqing Dun,Yunyun Zhang,Qun Yue,Yuquan Xu

doi:10.1186/s13568-020-01055-x

Abstract

Herbicides are important tools for weed control in modern agriculture. In the search for potential herbicidal natural products from fungal species, harzianum A and B were identified from the biofertilizer fungus, Trichoderma brevicompactum. In the phytotoxicity assays on the dicot species Brassica chinensis, harzianum A and B reduced both shoot and root lengths at low concentrations and inhibited the seed germination at 2 μg mL−1. In addition, harzianum A and B also exhibited phytotoxicity against monocots, Oryza sativa L. cv. Nipponbare and Echinochloa crusgalli L. Beauv.. Compared with a common herbicide, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, harzianum A and B performed similar activity in a pot assay, and were more effective in post-emergence than pre-emergence conditions. Harzianum A and B have potential as efficient herbicide for controlling important dicotyledon and monocotyledon weeds at low concentrations. They can be sprayed in liquid form in both pre- and post-emergence conditions. Our results confirmed the importance of these molecules for the development of new herbicides.

Highlights

Weeds cause significant negative impact on crop productivity and consequent economic losses due to their competition with crops for soil, water and nutrients (Charudattan 2001; Rajcan and Swanton 2001; Tilman et al 2002)
In our search for potential herbicidal leading compounds from fungal strains, we identified harzianum A (HA) and harzianum B (HB) (1–2) from the biofertilizer fungus, T. brevicompactum (CGMCC19618)
The results revealed the potential of HA and HB as herbicide

Summary

Introduction

Weeds cause significant negative impact on crop productivity and consequent economic losses due to their competition with crops for soil, water and nutrients (Charudattan 2001; Rajcan and Swanton 2001; Tilman et al 2002). The intensive and indiscriminate application of these chemicals, especially those that are very persistent in agricultural end-products and not biodegradable, is one of the major causes of environmental pollution and human health threat. The rapid evolution of weed resistance calls for urgent need to develop new herbicides with high biological activity, as well as low or no toxicity, compared to the commercial herbicides (Araniti et al 2019; Dayan and Duke 2014). Until now, natural products have much less contribution in herbicide development compared to other pesticides (Copping and Duke 2007; Huter 2011), many natural products and derivatives have been reported with herbicidal activity (Araniti et al 2015, Yin et al AMB Expr (2020) 10:118

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