Molecular Characterization of Trichoderma Harzianum and Biomanagement of Disease Complex in Gerbera

Abstract

Trichoderma harzianum , a versatile bio-control agent has been extensively used for the management of pathogenic fungi infecting various crops. In our preliminary studies a few strains of this bio-agent were found to newlinebe infecting root knot nematodes ( eloidogyne incognita ) besides other pathogenic fungi. However a few other strains were only infecting pathogenic fungi. As there were variations in the efficacy of the strains, it was thought to carryout research on the molecular characterization of the several strains of T. harzianum which are infecting the nematode as well as pathogenic fungi. newlineThese studies resulted into a molecular profile of the selected strains which newlinehelp in the maintenance of genetic identity by developing a molecular markers newlinefor their nematicidal activity. Thus specific molecular markers were developed to identify the T. harzianum strains with nematicidal activity gene ( PRA1 ) for the 1 st time. In this process the nematicial activity newlineresponsible genes (sequences) - PRA1 that produces a trypsin like protease newlinewas submitted to NCBI- Genebank for the 1 st time and two accession numbers were obtained . newline