Trichoderma koningiopsis Tk905: an efficient biocontrol, induced resistance agent against banana Fusarium wilt disease and a potential plant-growth-promoting fungus

Mei Luo; Yue Chen; Qiurong Huang; Zhenxin Huang; Handa Song; Zhangyong Dong

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1301062

Trichoderma koningiopsis Tk905: an efficient biocontrol, induced resistance agent against banana Fusarium wilt disease and a potential plant-growth-promoting fungus

Front Microbiol. 2023 Nov 7:14:1301062. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1301062. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Mei Luo^#^{1

2}, Yue Chen^#¹, Qiurong Huang¹, Zhenxin Huang¹, Handa Song^{1

2}, Zhangyong Dong^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Innovative Institute for Plant Health, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou, China.
² Key laboratory of Fruit and Vegetable Green Prevention and Control in South-China, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Guangzhou, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense tropical race 4 (FocTR4) is a devastating phytopathogen responsible for significant losses in banana production worldwide. Trichoderma and other biocontrol agents (BCAs) have been used as suitable disease control methods for banana Fusarium wilt. In this study, the endophytic T. koningiopsis Tk905 strain was isolated from the roots of dendrobe plants and identified utilizing morphological and molecular analyses. Antifungal activity tests revealed that Tk905 effectively inhibited mycelial growth with inhibition rates ranging from 26.52 to 75.34%. Additionally, Tk905 covered the pathogen mycelia, and spores were observed on or around the pathogen hyphae. The average root and shoot fresh weights and plant height, of Tk905-inoculated plants were significantly higher than those of the untreated plants. Furthermore, Tk905 treatment significantly increased the activity of antioxidant enzymes, such as catalase (CAT), phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), polyphenol oxidase (PPO), and peroxidase (POD), suggesting that Tk905 may enhance plant defence systems by activating their antioxidant mechanisms. Most importantly, Tk905-treated plants inoculated by three methods exhibited significantly lower disease incidence and severity than untreated plants. The protective effects of Tk905 against FocTR4 infection were not only observed in the early stages of infection but persisted throughout the experiment, suggesting that T. koningiopsis Tk905 can provide long-lasting protection against Fusarium wilt.

Keywords: Trichoderma koningiopsis; biocontrol; induced resistance; plant-growth promoting; soil-borne disease.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was funded by the Guangzhou Key R&D Plan [202103000031], the regional joint fund of Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Fund-Youth Fund project [2022A1515110982], Guangdong Provincial Department of Education [2022ZDJS020/019-1], the Innovative team program of the Department of Education of Guangdong Province (2023KCXTD018), and the open project of the Guangdong University Key Laboratory for Sustainable Control of Fruit and Vegetable Diseases and Pests [KA21031C5-01].