Three new species of Trichoderma (Hypocreales, Hypocreaceae) from soils in China

Abstract

Trichoderma spp. are diverse fungi with wide distribution. In this study, we report on three new species of Trichoderma, namely T. nigricans, T. densissimum and T. paradensissimum, collected from soils in China. Their phylogenetic position of these novel species was determined by analyzing the concatenated sequences of the second largest nuclear RNA polymerase subunit encoding gene (rpb2) and the translation elongation factor 1– alpha encoding gene (tef1). The results of the phylogenetic analysis showed that each new species formed a distinct clade: T. nigricans is a new member of the Atroviride Clade, and T. densissimum and T. paradensissimum belong to the Harzianum Clade. A detailed description of the morphology and cultural characteristics of the newly discovered Trichoderma species is provided, and these characteristics were compared with those of closely related species to better understand the taxonomic relationships within the Trichoderma.