Abstract
Trichoderma hamatum strain Th23, isolated from tomato roots, was molecularly identified using phylogenetic analysis based on ITS, tef1, and rpb2 gene sequences and evaluated for its efficiency in suppressing tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) infection for the first time. Under greenhouse conditions, the application of Th23 promoted tomato growth with significant increases in shoot and root parameters as well as improved total chlorophyll content. Compared to the nontreated tomato plants, the soil pretreatment of tomato plants 48 h before TMV inoculation produced a significant reduction in the TMV accumulation level by 84.69% and enhanced different growth parameters. In contrast, TMV had a deleterious impact on fresh and dry matter accumulation and inhibited photosynthetic capacity. Furthermore, the protective activity of Th23 was associated with a significant increase in reactive oxygen species scavenging enzymes (PPO, CAT, and SOD) as well as decreased nonenzymatic oxidative stress markers (H2O2 and MDA) compared to the TMV treatment at 15 days post-viral inoculation (dpi). In addition, considerable increases in the transcriptional levels of polyphenolic genes (HQT and CHS) and pathogenesis-related proteins (PR-1 and PR-7) were shown to induce systemic resistance against TMV. Consequently, the ability of T. hamatum strain Th23 to promote plant growth, induce systemic resistance, and boost innate immunity against TMV infestation supported the incorporation of Th23 as a potential biocontrol agent for managing plant viral infections. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of the antiviral activity of T. hamatum against plant viral infection.
Highlights
Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) is a single-stranded positive-sense RNA belonging to the Tobamovirus genus that infects many plant species in several families, primarily tobacco and tomato plants as well as most Solanaceae family plants [1,2]
The activity,that the results showed that thewas level content was considerably significantly reduced by 27.88% compared to27.88%
The Th23 treatment showed a relative expression level of 4.22-fold change higher than the control, which revealed a significant increase of 385.06% compared to the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) treatment
Summary
Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) is a single-stranded positive-sense RNA belonging to the Tobamovirus genus that infects many plant species in several families, primarily tobacco and tomato plants as well as most Solanaceae family plants [1,2]. TMV infection results in mosaic signs on the leaves, yellowing plant tissue, and significant economic losses worldwide [3]. New approaches to controlling TMV are required because of the shortage of suitable and effective control [4]. Biological control agents have long been shown to improve plant defense systems and lower disease severity and incidence. Among the biological control agents that have proven to have a reasonable degree of pathogen control, plant growth-promoting fungi (PGPF) are well known for their ability to minimize the disease incidence of many fungal, bacterial, and viral plant pathogens and trigger plant
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