Four new species of Trichoderma in the Harzianum clade from northern China

Abstract

The Harzianum clade of Trichoderma comprises many species, which are associated with a wide variety of substrates. In this study, four new species of Trichoderma, namely T. lentinulae, T. vermifimicola, T. xixiacum, and T. zelobreve, were encountered from a fruiting body and compost of Lentinula, soil, and vermicompost. Their colony and mycelial morphology, including features of asexual states, were described. For each species, their DNA sequences were obtained from three loci, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions of the ribosomal DNA, the gene encoding the second largest nuclear RNA polymerase subunit (RPB2), the translation elongation factor 1-α encoding gene (TEF1-α). The analysis combining sequences of the three gene regions distinguished four new species in the Harzianum clade of Trichoderma. Among them, T. lentinulae and T. xixiacum clustered with T. lixii, from which these new species differ in having shorter phialides and smaller conidia. Additionally, T. lentinulae differs from T. xixiacum in forming phialides with inequilateral to a strongly-curved apex, cultural characteristics, and slow growth on PDA. Trichoderma vermifimicola is closely related to T. simmonsii, but it differs from the latter by producing phialides in verticillate whorls and smaller conidia. Trichoderma zelobreve is the sister species of T. breve but is distinguished from T. breve by producing shorter and narrower phialides, smaller conidia, and by forming concentric zones on agar plates. This study updates our knowledge of species diversity of Trichoderma.

A systematic review about biological control of phytopathogenic Phytophthora cinnamomi

“…reduced the mycelial growth by more than 45% in, at least, two species of Phytophthora. This result agrees with that previously reported, since T. guizhouense is a recently named species derived from T. harzianum and belonging to the Harzianum clade [24,25]. They also showed that 81% of the Trichoderma isolates presented the highest level (4) of mycoparasitic activity, colonizing the Phytophthora colonies and sporulating on them.…”

Telomere-to-telomere genome assembly of asparaginase-producing Trichoderma simmonsii

“…In particular, T. harzianum is used as a commercial biocontrol agent against plant diseases [4]. In fungal phylogeny, the Harzianum clade consists of at least 18 Trichoderma species, including T. harzianum, T. guizhouense, T. inhamatum, T. lentiforme, T. lixii, T. afarasin, T. afroharzianum, T. atrobrunneum, T. camerunense, T. endophyticum, T. neotropicale, T. pyramidale, T. rifaii, T. simmonsii [5], T. lentinulae, T. vermifimicola, T. xixiacum, and T. zelobreve [6]. Fungi in this clade are ubiquitous and often isolated from the soil as well as plant debris and occasionally from marine resources such as sediments and sea sponges [7,8].…”

Trichoderma- from lab bench to field application: Looking back over 50 years

“…Phylogenetic studies based on 18S rDNA sequence analysis (Kulling-Gradiner et al, 2002), where, small mitochondrial rDNA subunit, ITS1, 5.8S rDNA, ITS2, 28S rDNA, translation elongation factor (TEF-1), and endochitinase 42 were used to construct a phylogenetic tree, suggested Trichoderma as a monophyletic branch under Hypocreaceae and identified 46 species under three sections, namely, Trichoderma, Pachybasium, and Longibrachiatum. In a recent study, Gu et al (2020) identified four new species of Trichoderma in the Harzianum clade (Figure 1) based on ITS, RPB2, and TEF1-alpha sequence data set.…”