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Copper tolerant Trichoderma asperellum increases bio-efficacy of copper against Phytophthora infestans in dual combination

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Abstract

Present research was conducted to understand the characteristics of Trichoderma in the development of combination product involving a lower dose of Cu fungicide that showed promise in the effective management of Phytophthora infestans, the late blight pathogen of potato. Based on Cu tolerance activity, potential Trichoderma strains (viz., TCMS-36, SBIT-32 and TCMS-71) were selected. Electron microscopy (SEM and TEM) studies revealed that tolerant Trichoderma isolates (SBIT-32 and TCMS 36) accumulated Cu on the cell wall, while the sensitive isolate (TCMS 71) was repressed due to penetration of Cu through the cell wall. To elucidate Cu-tolerance, Cu-biosorption by living and dead mycelia of T. asperellum was estimated by atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Both sensitive and tolerant T. asperellum isolates accumulated Cu in their cells all through the observation period of 120 h, with considerable increase in the amount of Cu removed from the cell free supernatant from 24 to 120 h. Isolate TCMS-36 recorded maximum Cu accumulation (0.3506 mg/g) in living mycelia, while SBIT-32 recorded highest accumulation (0.2368 mg/g) in dead mycelia. Effectiveness of Cu tolerant T. asperellum was studied in combination with Cu fungicides; viz., COC (Blitox-50), COH (Kocide) in controlling late blight disease in the field. Among three modes of applications, viz., seed, foliar and seed+foliar, maximum delay in progress of the disease was recorded in seed+foliar application. Dual combination of COC@500 ppm and Trichoderma was found more effective than COC alone @1000 ppm in reducing disease severity. Cu tolerant Trichoderma strains could thus be developed as combination products with Cu-based fungicides for safe and effective management of late blight disease of potato.

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Acknowledgements

Authors thank Department of Biotechnology, GOI for funding the “2+2 Indo-German project” under which the present research was undertaken. Authors thank the project partners at University of Munster, Germany, Spiess Urania Chemicals Gmbh, Hamburg and Sri-Biotech Laboratories, Hyderabad for providing inputs for the experiments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Pathology, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, 263145, India

    Erayya Ladi, Nandani Shukla, Yogita Bohra, Anand Kumar Tiwari & Jatinder Kumar

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  1. Erayya Ladi
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  2. Nandani Shukla
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  4. Anand Kumar Tiwari
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Contributions

Conceived research: J. Kumar and A. K. Tewari. Designed and performed the experiments: Erayya Ladi, Nandani Shukla and Yogita Bohra. Analyzed the data: Erayya Ladi and Nandani Shukla. Contributed to reagents/materials/analysis tools: J. Kumar. Wrote the manuscript: Nandani Shukla and Erayya Ladi. Finalized the manuscript: J.Kumar.

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Correspondence to Jatinder Kumar.

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Ladi, E., Shukla, N., Bohra, Y. et al. Copper tolerant Trichoderma asperellum increases bio-efficacy of copper against Phytophthora infestans in dual combination. Phytoparasitica 48, 357–370 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12600-020-00804-9

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