BIOCONTROL MECHANISMS EVOLVED BY TRICHODERMA SP. AGAINST PHYTOPATHOGENS: A REVIEW

Abstract

Plants are the major source of food, fibre, fodder, medicines and many other useful products. Various insects, bacteria, virus, fungi and other pests attack plants at various stages of their development. Fusarium, Pythium, Phytophthora, Botrytis, Rhizoctonia, and Sclerotium are the major plant pathogens which cause rot and wilt in plants. Approximately 30,000 species of plant pathogens attack Indian crops. For the control of these phytopathogens, different chemical fungicides are used. Chemical based control of phytopathogens is very effective but it has several disadvantages like, environmental pollution, development of resistant strains, short term effect etc. Thus, there is a need for identifying alternative measures, which can be efficiently used for the control of phytopathogens. Biological control is the best answer for this question as it is very effective and environmentally safe. Trichoderma is an well known example of biological control. Trichoderma exert biocontrol action against soil borne pathogens through different mechanisms such as competing for nutrients and space, modifying the environmental conditions, or promoting plant growth and plant defense mechanisms and antibiosis or directly by mechanisms such as Mycoparasitism.