Are mycoparasitism and chitinase production species or isolate dependent in Trichoderma

The relationship between taxonomic status of Trichoderma spp., chitinase production in solid substrate fermentation (SSF) on four media and mycoparasitism in dual culture (confrontation assay)against four plant pathogenic fungi was studied. Seventy five Trichoderma isolates belonging to 35species have been screened. The plant pathogenic fungi used in confrontation assay were Botrytis cinerea , Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. dianthi , Rhizoctonia solani and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum . The SSF media contained wheat bran, crude chitin (from crab shells, SIGMA) and salt solutions. The best performing isolates in mycoparasitism tests were Trichoderma flavofuscum, T. harzianum, T.inhamatum, T. koningii and T. strigosum. Some isolates exhibiting good mycoparasitism produced chitinase in SSF only at low or medium level. In contrary there were isolates with excellent extracellular chitinase production but their biocontrol potential did not belong to the leading group.Statistical methods have been used to evaluate the data.