Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc. the causative agent of white rot is one of the destructive pathogens of nightshade crops. In Côte d'Ivoire, this fungal pathogen constitutes a major constraint for the cultivation of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) with 41.01% crop losses in humid forest areas. Controlling this fungus with synthetic chemicals can be effective, but harmful to human health and the environment. The use of biological control agents could be an alternative approach to control S. rolfsii. In this perspective, the objective of this work was to select fungi from the rhizosphere of tomato crops capable of inhibiting the growth of S. rolfsii. To do this, 153 fungi were isolated from the rhizosphere and from direct confrontation tests 10 fungi whose antagonistic power of S. rolfsii varied between 27 and 60% were selected. Molecular identification (ITS) of these antagonist fungi revealed that the isolates belonged to the genera Talaromyces sp. (n = 4), Trichoderma sp. (n = 3), Penicillium sp. (n = 2) and Clonostachys sp. (n = 1). Among these fungi, Talaromyces purpureogenus and Talaromyces assiutensis were able to diffuse compounds in agar capable of inhibiting the growth of S. rolfsii. The chemical study of these 2 fungi made it possible to identify mitorubrin and mitorubrinol produced by T. purpureogenus and spiculisporic acid produced by T. assiutensis. Mitorubrin and mitorubrinol had inhibitory activities of 100 and 70% at 10 mg/mL, respectively, whereas spiculisporic acid showed moderate inhibition of 38 at 20 mg/mL of the growth of S. rolfsii; however, its abundant production by the fungus could be an advantage in the control of this phytopathogen. Isolated from the same biotope as S. rolfsii, T. purpureogenus and T. assiutensis represent favorable candidates for the biological control against S. rolfsii.
Keywords: Antagonist fungi; Antibiosis; Sclerotium rolfsii; Talaromyces sp.
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