Abstract
Trichoderma is the most commonly used fungal biocontrol agent throughout the world. In the present study, various Trichoderma isolates were isolated from different vegetable fields. In the isolated microflora, the colony edges varied from wavy to smooth. The mycelial forms were predominantly floccose with hyaline color and conidiophores among all the strains were highly branched. Based on morphological attributes, all the isolates were identified as Trichoderma harzianum. The molecular identification using multilocus sequencing ITS, rpb2 and tef1α, genes further confirmed the morphological identification. The average chitinase activity varied from 1.13 units/mL to 3.38 units/mL among the various isolates, which increased linearly with temperature from 15 to 30 °C. There was an amplified production in the chitinase production in the presence of Mg+ and Ca2+ and Na+ metal ions, but the presence of certain ions was found to cause the down-regulated chitinase activity, i.e., Zn2+, Hg2+, Fe2+, Ag+ and K+. All the chitinase producing Trichoderma isolates inhibited the growth of tested pathogens viz., Dematophora necatrix, Fusarium solani, Fusarium oxysporum and Pythium aphanidermatum at 25% culture-free filtrate concentration under in vitro conditions. Also, under in vivo conditions, the lowest wilt incidence and highest disease control on Fusarium oxysporum was observed in isolate BT4 with mean wilt incidence and disease control of 21% and 48%, respectively. The Trichoderma harzianum identified in this study will be further used in formulation development for the management of diseases under field conditions.
Highlights
The genus Trichoderma is the most important filamentous fungi in biological control strategies of phytopathogen management [1,2]
A total of 110 Trichoderma isolates were collected from different geographical regions of Kashmir, India
All the isolates were identified as Trichoderma harzianum (Table 1)
Summary
The genus Trichoderma is the most important filamentous fungi in biological control strategies of phytopathogen management [1,2]. The genus Trichoderma brings about the phytopathogen degradation by innumerable means, and chitinase activity is one of the imperative aspects in the process of its antifungal behavior [6] besides jasmonic acid-mediated systemic resistance [7]. An insoluble linear β-1, 4 linked homopolymer of N-acetylglucosamine, is one of the most abundant natural renewable compounds. It is a polysaccharide chemically associated with cellulose [8]. Due to the chitin-based cell wall degrading nature of the chitinase enzyme, it is most promptly used in biological research as a controlling agent for the generation of fungal protoplast [13]
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