Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering (May 2018)

Triggering the biocontrol of Botrytis cinerea by Trichoderma harzianum through inhibition of pathogenicity and virulence related proteins

  • Kandasamy SARAVANAKUMAR, Zhixiang LU, Hai XIA, Meng WANG, Jianan SUN, Shaoqing WANG, Qiang-qiang WANG, Yaqian LI, Jie CHEN

DOI
https://doi.org/10.15302/J-FASE-2018214
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5, no. 2
pp. 271 – 279

Abstract

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This study reports a strain of Trichoderma harzianum CCTCC-SBW0162 with potential to enhance biocontrol activity against gray mold pathogen, Botrytis cinerea, and with a pivotal role in tomato (Solanum esculentum) plant growth enhancement. A total of 254 Trichoderma isolates were screened by in vitro antagonistic assay. Of these, 10 were selected for greenhouse experiments based on their greater inhibition of B. cinerea. The in vitro antagonistic assay and greenhouse experiments indicated that T. harzianum CCTCC-SBW0162 gave the highest inhibition rate (90.6%) and disease reduction (80.7%). Also, to study the possible mechanism associated with antifungal activity of CCTCC-SBW0162 against B. cinerea, molecular docking was used to assess the interactions between CCTCC-SBW0162-derived metabolites, and pathogencity and virulence related proteins of B. cinerea. The molecular docking results indicated that the combination of harzianopyridone, harzianolide and anthraquinone C derived from CCTCC-SBW0162 could synergistically improve antifungal activity against B. cinerea through the inhibition/modification of pathogenicity and virulence related proteins. However, this computerized modeling work emphasized the need for further study in the laboratory to confirm the effect T. harzianum-derived metabolites against the proteins of B. cinerea and their interactions.

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