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Title: IDENTIFICATION OF TRICHODERMA (FUNGI, ASCOMYCETES, HYPOCREALES) SPECIES USING DNA BARCODING

Author
item Samuels, Gary
item Rossman, Amy

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/20/2005
Publication Date: 2/2/2005
Citation: Samuels, G.J., Rossman, A.Y. 2005. IDENTIFICATION OF TRICHODERMA (FUNGI, ASCOMYCETES, HYPOCREALES) SPECIES USING DNA BARCODING. Meeting Abstract.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Trichoderma species, commonly referred to as green molds, are among the most successful fungi in biological control of plant diseases induced by fungi. Exploration for new biological control agents is on-going as new ecological niches with these fungi are discovered. Recently Trichoderma species have been found to live as endophytes within stems of healthy plants. A number of groups are studying the interaction of plant hosts with their Trichoderma endophytes. Trichoderma species are also commonly encountered in ecological studies involving soil fungi and appear to play a role in fungistasis. Trichoderma species are notoriously difficult to identify by classical methods. Approximately 100 species in this pleomorphic genus have been included in phylogenetic analyses, although approximately 200 species of Hypocrea have been described. DNA sequencing and data analysis has been undertaken at the USDA- ARS Systematic Botany and Mycology Laboratory. We have found that about a 600 bp region of translation-elongation factor 1-alpha (TEF) is adequate for identification of species in genetically homogeneous groups and we use that region for species recognition. Although there is intraspecies variation in this TEF region, we have sequenced multiple strains and thus can propose a system for identification with some confidence. This work is ongoing and we have prepared and deposited in GenBank sequences of TEF using primers that are appropriate to distinguish the approximately 80 described species of Trichoderma and Hypocrea that have been included in sequence analysis. The only reliable means of identifying many species is through DNA sequencing.