Study of the siderophore‐producing Trichoderma asperellum Q1 on cucumber growth promotion under salt stress

Abstract

Trichoderma spp. are versatile beneficial fungi which can stimulate growth and plant resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. In this study, the potential of Trichoderma isolate in promoting the cucumber growth under salt stress and its possible mechanisms were investigated. Strain Q1 was isolated from the rhizosphere of cucumber in greenhouse in China and identified as Trichoderma asperellum based on its morphological features and the molecular phylogenetic analyses. It exhibited some plant growth‐promoting attributes of phosphate solubilization, 1‐aminocyclopropane‐1‐carboxylate (ACC) deaminase activity, auxin and siderophore production. In pot trials, applying strain Q1 to cucumber plant had significantly promoted seedlings growth and alleviated the growth suppression induced by salt stress as confirmed by the changes in growth phenotype and several biochemical and physiological parameters. In solution culture experiments, the growth of cucumber seedlings was increased and the percentage of wilted cucumber seedlings was decreased in the treatment of siderophore‐containing culture filtrate (SCF) of strain Q1 with insoluble Fe3+ under salt stress. These results indicated that T. asperellum Q1 has a real potential to enhance cucumber growth by inducing physiological protection under saline stress, and its siderophores showed sign of alleviating negative effect of salinity and available iron deficiency.

Trichoderma-based Products and their Widespread Use in Agriculture

“…The species most commonly used in biocontrol include T. harzianum, T. atroviride, T. asperellum, T. polysporum, T. viride, as well as a few species that belong to the related genus of Gliocladium [63]. The antagonistic potential serves as the basis for effective biological control applications of different Trichoderma strains as biofungicides against soil, foliar and vascular pathogens, as an alternative to chemical pesticides for treatment against a wide spectrum of plant pathogens, as well as to increase resistance to abiotic stresses [18,64,65].…”

“…Numerous hypothesis have been proposed to explain this observation including the improvement of chemical solubilisation, sequester, availability (i.e. siderophores production) [65,78,79] and nutrient uptake by the plant [80], as well as the involvement of growth phytohormones from both plant and fungal origin [28,81]. Not only do these processes improve plant growth, but they also stimulate plant respiration, thus enhancing photosynthesis or photosynthetic efficiency [64], as well as increasing the ability of the plant to withstand abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, high temperature.…”

Role of peptaibols and lytic enzymes of Trichoderma cerinum Gur1 in biocontrol of Fusraium oxysporum and chickpea wilt

“…Siderophore production by Trichoderma spp. was also reported by several workers that enhance the availability of iron to plants (Qi and Zhao 2013).…”

Trichoderma in Agriculture: An Overview of Global Scenario on Research and its Application

“…The research by several independent research groups have observed the increased growth of various crops with the use of antagonist Trichoderma spp. (Sharma et al, 2012;Contreras-Cornejo et al, 2013;Hermosa et al,2013;Samolski et al, 2013;Qi and Zhao, 2013;Stewart and Hill, 2014). In a study conducted by Zhang et al, (2014a) revealed that Trichoderma longibrachiatum was found fairly effective for promoting plant growth and nematode control in wheat.…”