Morphological Characterization of Biocontrol Isolates of <i>Trichoderma</i> to Study the Correlation between Morphological Characters and Biocontrol Efficacy

Abstract

Abstract. The morphological characterization was carried out for 5 isolates of Trichoderma harzianum and 7 isolates of Trichoderma viride and tested for their biocontrol efficacy. The isolates belonging to T.harzianum were analogous in colony colour, culture smell, mycelial colour, conidiation, conidial shape, conidial wall and conidial colour. Correspondingly the isolates of T.viride showed certain similarity in colony colour, colony edge, culture smell, conidiophore branching, conidial wall, conidial colour and chlamydospores. Inter specific differences through cluster analysis based on morphological characters grouped the twelve isolates into three major clusters where all the isolates of T.harzianum formed a single cluster while the isolates of T.viride were bifurcated into two groups. The clustering was substantiated by similarity index which showed maximum similarity among T.harzianum isolates with only less than 20% variation among themselves. Similarly the clusters having isolates of T.viride also had less variation within them. The biocontrol efficacy of these twelve isolates of Trichoderma was experimented by dual culture test under laboratory condition and there existed some relation between the biocontrol efficacy of these isolates and morphology.

Evaluation of native Trichoderma isolates for the management of sugarcane smut (Ustilago scitaminea) in sugar plantations of Ethiopia

“…With regard to the identity of the five selected isolates (WI4-27, MKI2-k17, MI3-m33, WI12-25, and MKI3), these isolates were identified as Trichoderma harzianum, T. asperellum, T. viride, T. viride, and T. harzianum, respectively. Similarly, isolates showing similar macroscopic and microscopic features were identified as T. harzianum, T. asperellum, and T. viride isolates by several authors (Kumar & Sharma, 2016;Sekhar et al, 2017;Siddiquee et al, 2017).…”

“…Best performing native Trichoderma isolates in the antagonistic test were followed for macroscopic and microscopic features to estimate their identity. Conventional techniques for estimation of the identity of Trichoderma colonies to the genus or species level were done based on the macroscopic characteristics (color, odor, physiological characters, and growth rate) and microscopic characteristics (mycelium, conidia, conidiophore, phialides, and chlamydospores) (Kumar & Sharma, 2016).…”