Proteolytic activity and antibiotic production by Trichoderma harzianum in relation to pathogenicity to insects

By J. Shakeri, H. Foster. 2007

109 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Two strains of Trichoderma harzianum, 101645, an insect pathogen and 206040, used for biological control of fungal plant pathogens were investigated for the production of serine protease, chitinase and antibiotic activity in relation to entomopathogenicity. Both strains produced serine protease with a Mr of 31 kDa and chitinase with a Mr of 44 kDa. Enzymes from both strains had similar characteristics and were produced during the growth phase. Both strains also produced peptaibols active against fungi in late growth and stationary phases which differed in their amino-alcohol content. The peptaibols were insecticidal when fed to larvae of Tenebrio molitor or when applied to the cuticle together with the serine protease. The results suggest that the virulence factors involved in biocontrol are the same as those for insect pathogenicity. This may affect the use of Trichoderma spp. for biocontrol as there may be effects on non-target insect species.

Subfields: Insect Science, Molecular Biology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b5a78df67386a09cfb8821bb2010f92419a0d171

How researchers see this paper

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In Insect Science

1. B. Ownley
2. F. Vega
3. L. Jaber

In Molecular Biology

1. B. Ownley
2. F. Vega

Citations in the corpus

• Endophytic fungal entomopathogens with activity against plant pathogens: ecology and evolution (2010, background): “Many species of Trichoderma have been commercially developed for biological control of plant diseases and insects (Harmon et al. 2004; Shakeri and Foster 2007).”