Endophytic Trichoderma strains isolated from forest species of the Cerrado-Caatinga ecotone are potential biocontrol agents against crop pathogenic fungi

Abstract

The indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides increasingly harms the health of living beings and the environment. Thus, biological control carried out by microorganisms has gained prominence, since it consists of an environmentally friendly alternative to the use of pesticides for controlling plant diseases. Herein, we evaluated the potential role of endophytic Trichoderma strains isolated from forest species of the Cerrado-Caatinga ecotone as biological control agents of crop pathogenic fungi. Nineteen Trichoderma strains were used to assess the antagonistic activity by in vitro bioassays against the plant pathogens Colletotrichum truncatum, Lasiodiplodia theobromae, Macrophomina phaseolina, and Sclerotium delphinii isolated from soybean, cacao, fava bean, and black pepper crops, respectively. All Trichoderma strains demonstrated inhibitory activity on pathogen mycelial growth, with maximum percent inhibition of 70% against C. truncatum, 78% against L. theobromae, 78% against M. phaseolina, and 69% against S. delphinii. Crude methanol extracts (0.5 to 2.0 mg mL-1) of Trichoderma strains were able to inhibit the growth of C. truncatum, except Trichoderma sp. T3 (UFPIT06) and T. orientale (UFPIT09 and UFPIT17) at 0.5 mg mL-1, indicating that the endophytes employ a biocontrol mechanism related to antibiosis, together with multiple mechanisms. Discriminant metabolites of Trichoderma extracts were unveiled by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry-based metabolomics combined with principal component analysis (PCA), which included antifungal metabolites and molecules with other bioactivities. These results highlight the biocontrol potential of Trichoderma strains isolated from the Cerrado-Caatinga ecotone against crop pathogenic fungi, providing support for ongoing research on disease control in agriculture.

Antibacterial and Antioxidant Activity of Endophytic Fungi Extract Isolated from Leaves of Sungkai (Peronema canescens)

“…Studies have revealed that endophytic fungi produce secondary metabolites with diverse bioactivities such as antibiotics, antiprotozoals, antivirals, antidiabetics, antiparasitics, anticancers, antioxidants, and immunomodulatory compounds so that endophytic fungi are referred to as secondary metabolite stores (Khan et al, 2019;Manganyi and Ateba, 2020). Trichoderma is a genus of endophytic fungi that have diverse bioactivity (Morais et al, 2022;Zhang et al, 2021).…”

Whole-Genome Sequencing and Comparative Genomic Analysis of Potential Biotechnological Strains of Trichoderma harzianum, Trichoderma atroviride, andTrichoderma reesei

“…SMs from microorganisms may play an antifungal role against agriculturally important phytopathogenic fungi (Khan et al, 2020a). Many Trichoderma species are the most prominent producers of SMs with antimicrobial activity against phytopathogenic fungi (Khan et al, 2020b; Morais et al, 2022). Therefore, we performed genome-wide identification and analysis of SMGCs in the Th3844, Th0179, Ta0020, and Tr0711 genomes.…”

Optimization of culture conditions for the production, antifungal activity and characterization of secondary metabolites of <i>Trichoderma longibrachiatum</i>

“…Some of the prevalent fungal phytopathogens belong to genera Macrophomina, Phytophthora, Colletotrichum, Alternaria, Botrytis, Cochliobolus, Fusarium, Geotrichum, Penicillium, and Sclerotina sp. The application of microorganisms to control plant diseases is an environmentally friendly substitute to pesticides, and hence biological control has grown in popularity (Morais et al, 2022). These approaches frequently demand coordinated use of several approaches, or Integrated Disease Management (IDM).…”