Study of Trichoderma harzianum genes associated with mycoparasitism and its role in biocontrol of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum

Fungal species Trichoderma harzianum, are studied as soilborne plant pathogens biological control agent and its strategy is a complex process, which can occur by different mechanisms or a combination thereof, including mycoparasitism. In this work, the consequences of epl-1 gene deletion, which encoding for Epl-1 protein, described as plants resistance elicitor, were analyzed on: modulation of gene expression involved in T. harzianum mycoparasitism process against phytopathogenic fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum; mycoparasitism establishment process and T. harzianum interaction with bean plants. The results showed that epl-1 encoding gene deletion altered the expression modulation of all analyzed genes related to mycoparasitism process. Furthermore, Epl-1 presented a role in modulating expression of these genes in the process of self and host cell wall recognition; the interaction with host plant pathogens in formation of mycoparasitism structures as well as local and systemic resistance in beans plants (AU)