objective: the genus trichoderma comprises a great number of fungal strains that act as biological control agents, the antagonistic properties of which are based on the activation of multiple mechanisms. methods: trichoderma strains exert biocontrol against fungal phytopathogens either indirectly, by competing for nutrients and space, modifying the environmental conditions, or promoting plant g...

Two biological control agents, Bacillus subtilis AP-01 (Larminar(™)) and Trichoderma harzianum AP-001 (Trisan(™)) alone or/in combination were investigated in controlling three tobacco diseases, including bacterial wilt (Ralstonia solanacearum), damping-off (Pythium aphanidermatum), and frogeye leaf spot (Cercospora nicotiana). Tests were performed in greenhouse by soil sterilization prior to i...

BACKGROUND Basal stem rot (BSR) disease caused by the fungus Ganoderma boninense is the most serious disease affecting the oil palm; this is because the disease escapes the early disease detection. The biocontrol agent Trichoderma harzianum can protect the disease only at the early stage of the disease. In the present study, the expression levels of three oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) chit...

A new semi-selective medium, acidified weak potato-dextrose agar (AWPDA) with Mertect (active ingredient: thiabendazole), was developed for the isolation and enumeration of Alternaria species from samples of soil and plant debris. The medium was selected based on growth inhibition tests against Alternaria and several other commonly encountered saprobic fungi utilizing three antifungal agents, B...

Trichothecenes are fungal sesquiterpenoid compounds, the majority of which have phytotoxic activity. They contaminate food and feed stocks, resulting in potential harm to animals and human beings. Trichoderma brevicompactum and T. arundinaceum produce trichodermin and harzianum A (HA), respectively, two trichothecenes that show different bioactive properties. Both compounds have remarkable anti...

Trichoderma harzianum IOC-3844 secretes high levels of cellulolytic-active enzymes and is therefore a promising strain for use in biotechnological applications in second-generation bioethanol production. However, the T. harzianum biomass degradation mechanism has not been well explored at the genetic level. The present work investigates six genomic regions (~150 kbp each) in this fungus that ar...

Genes encoding defense-related proteins have been used to alter the resistance of plants to pathogens and other environmental challenges, but no single fungal gene overexpression has produced broad-spectrum stress resistance in transgenic lines. We have generated transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) lines that overexpress the endochitinases CHIT33 and CHIT42 from the mycoparasitic fungus Tric...

Several proteins and peptides of microbial origin are reported for their elicitor properties, which play a vital role in the development of local and systemic resistances in plants. In this study, the efficacy of total crude proteins (TCP) extracted from six different Trichoderma spp. (T. asperellum, T. harzianum, T. atroviride, T. virens, T. longibrachiatum, and T. brevicompactum) was evaluate...

The scarcity of fresh water in the Mediterranean region necessitates the search for halotolerant agents of biological control of plant diseases that can be applied in arid-zone agriculture irrigated with saline water. Among 29 Trichoderma strains previously isolated from Mediterranean Psammocinia sp. sponges, the greatest number of isolates belong to the Trichoderma longibrachiatum-Hypocrea ori...

This study aimed to concentrate glycosyl hydrolases produced by Trichoderma harzianum P49P11 by ethanol precipitation. The variables tested besides ethanol concentration were temperature and pH. The precipitation with 90% (v/v) ethanol at pH 5.0 recovered more than 98% of the xylanase activity, regardless of the temperature (5.0, 15.0, or 25.0 °C). The maximum recovery of cellulase activity as ...