A newly isolated Trichoderma Parareesei N4-3 exhibiting a biocontrol potential for banana fusarium wilt by Hyperparasitism

Weiqiang Long; Yufeng Chen; Yongzan Wei; Junting Feng; Dengbo Zhou; Bingyu Cai; Dengfeng Qi; Miaoyi Zhang; Yankun Zhao; Kai Li; Yong-Zhong Liu; Wei Wang; Jianghui Xie

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1289959

A newly isolated Trichoderma Parareesei N4-3 exhibiting a biocontrol potential for banana fusarium wilt by Hyperparasitism

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Oct 24:14:1289959. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1289959. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Weiqiang Long^#^{1

2}, Yufeng Chen^#¹, Yongzan Wei¹, Junting Feng¹, Dengbo Zhou¹, Bingyu Cai¹, Dengfeng Qi¹, Miaoyi Zhang¹, Yankun Zhao¹, Kai Li¹, Yong-Zhong Liu², Wei Wang^{1

2}, Jianghui Xie^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ National Key Laboratory of Tropical Crop Breeding, Institute of Tropical Bioscience and Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Haikou, Hainan, China.
² National Key Laboratory for Germplasm Innovation and Utilization of Horticultural Crops, College of Horticulture and Forestry Sciences, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Banana Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense tropical race4 (Foc TR4) is one of the most destructive soil-borne fungal diseases and currently threatens banana production around the world. Until now, there is lack of an effective method to control banana Fusarium wilt. Therefore, it is urgent to find an effective and eco-friendly strategy against the fungal disease. In this study, a strain of Trichoderma sp. N4-3 was isolated newly from the rhizosphere soil of banana plants. The isolate was identified as Trichoderma parareesei through analysis of TEF1 and RPB2 genes as well as morphological characterization. In vitro antagonistic assay demonstrated that strain N4-3 had a broad-spectrum antifungal activity against ten selected phytopathogenic fungi. Especially, it demonstrated a strong antifungal activity against Foc TR4. The results of the dual culture assay indicated that strain N4-3 could grow rapidly during the pre-growth period, occupy the growth space, and secrete a series of cell wall-degrading enzymes upon interaction with Foc TR4. These enzymes contributed to the mycelial and spore destruction of the pathogenic fungus by hyperparasitism. Additionally, the sequenced genome proved that strain N4-3 contained 21 genes encoding chitinase and 26 genes encoding β-1,3-glucanase. The electron microscopy results showed that theses cell wall-degrading enzymes disrupted the mycelial, spore, and cell ultrastructure of Foc TR4. A pot experiment revealed that addition of strain N4-3 significantly reduced the amount of Foc TR4 in the rhizosphere soil of bananas at 60 days post inoculation. The disease index was decreased by 45.00% and the fresh weight was increased by 63.74% in comparison to the control. Hence, Trichoderma parareesei N4-3 will be a promising biological control agents for the management of plant fungal diseases.

Keywords: Trichoderma; banana fusarium wilt; biological control; enzyme; hyperparasitism.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hainan (321MS084, 322MS126, 323QN277, 323RC541, 321QN312), the Central Public-interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund (1630052022006, CATASCXTD202308), the project of National Key Laboratory for Tropical Crop Breeding (NKLTCB202306), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31770476, U22A20487) and the China Agriculture Research System (CARS-31).