THREE NEW SPECIES OF TRICHODERMA FOR THE MYCOFLORA OF IRAN

Some 350 Trichoderma isolates were obtained from soil samples collected from different parts of Iran. Cultures were purified on 2% water agar by hyphal tip method prior to identification. Obtained isolates were identified using morphological features including colony characters (pigmentation and growth rate on PDA) and microscopic characters such as shape of conidiophores, shape and size of conidia and phialides. Microscopic features of conidiophores and shape and size of conidia were studied and recorded 3–5 days after inoculation on cultures grown on 2% MEA at 20°C under ambient laboratory conditions by using light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Ten species including T. citrinoviride, T. longibrachiatum, T. saturnisporum, T. hamatum, T. harzianum, T. inhamalum, T. tomentosum, T. virens, T. asperellum and T. koningii were already identified and reported from Iran (ZAFARI et al. 2002) and three new species, T. ghanense (Fig. 1), T. spirale (Fig. 2) and T. atroviride (Fig. 3) from sections Longibrachiatum, Pachybasium and Trichoderma, respectively, are reported here. Trichoderma atroviride is known as one of the most important biocontrol agents against plant diseases caused by some pathogenic fungi.