Efficacy of the biocontrol agent Trichoderma harzianum ITEM 3636 against peanut smut, an emergent disease caused by Thecaphora frezii

Abstract

In this work, a bioformulation containing Trichoderma harzianum strain ITEM 3636, an effective biocontrol agent against the peanut pathogen Fusarium solani, was evaluated for control of peanut smut, an emergent disease caused by Thecaphora frezii. The performance of the bioformulation was evaluated during seasons 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 in experimental fields with history of peanut smut. Inoculation with T. harzianum ITEM 3636 significantly reduced the severity of peanut smut during both seasons by 17% and 25%, respectively. This is the first report where a consistent decrease of peanut smut symptoms is achieved in field experiments using a potential biological control agent. The identity of the causal agent of peanut smut was confirmed by sequencing the D1/D2 DNA region. T. harzianum ITEM 3636 caused significant increases in grain weight/plant in both years. Peanut smut and brown root rot are diseases that cause severe economic losses. Both causal agents may be present in the soil and, depending on environmental factors, cause disease. The T. harzianun ITEM 3636 bioformulation has high potential for controlling both diseases. Thus, the application of a single bioformulation could protect the health of peanut plants against two high impact pathogens.

Evaluating the impact of the biocontrol agentTrichoderma harzianumITEM 3636 on indigenous microbial communities from field soils

“…The identity of the strain was confirmed using sequence analyses of the 1 α (TEF1) and calmodulin (CAL) genes (Ganuza et al . ). These DNA sequences were uploaded to GenBank (accession numbers and ).…”

“…Both fields had a long history of peanut smut incidence (Ganuza et al . ) and were previously sown with maize. Trichoderma harzianum ITEM 3636 was applied on seeds previously coated with the Options Advance (NOVA) chemical fungicide.…”

“…The inoculation of the peanut seeds caused significant reductions in the incidence and severity of peanut smut, also causing significant increases in the weight of grains/plant (Ganuza et al . ). Trichoderma sp.…”

Effect of biocontrol and promotion of peanut growth by inoculating Trichoderma harzianum and Bacillus subtilis under controlled conditions and field

“…The products used for biological control are preparations of living or latent cells of microorganisms that, when applied to the soil or seed, favor the plant-rhizosphere relationship (Bashan et al, 2013). So far, there are in vitro studies on peanut about the benefits of applying microorganisms (Ankati et al, 2018;Ganuza et al 2017). According to Bashan et al (2013), the applied biologicals can directly or indirectly influence…”

Phenotypic Variation of Peanut Smut (Thecaphora frezii) Incidence and Severity in the U.S. Peanut Mini-Core Collection

“…The management of peanut smut has been difficult, as various fungicide mixtures, seed treatments, and biocontrol measures have performed inconsistently on direct control of the pathogen (Arias et al, 2019;Caz´on et al, 2018;Figueredo et al, 2017;Ganuza et al, 2017;Rago et al, 2017). Host plant resistance has shown potential as an effective tool for mitigating losses from peanut smut on commercial production, including some evidence of induced systemic resistance via inoculation by a specific strain of Bacillus spp.…”