Molecular and Morphological Characterization of Green Mold, Trichoderma spp. isolated from Oyster Mushrooms

Isolates of Trichoderma spp. collected from Pleurotus ostreatus and P. eryngii beds, which included loosened substrate compactness and development of green colour, were grouped into three species. The occurrence of different species of Trichoderma was as T. cf. virens(70.8%), T. longibrachiatum(16.7%) and T. harzianum(12.5%). The conidia of Trichoderma spp. were ellipsoidal, obovoid and phialides were bowling pins, lageniform and the length of phialides was $3.5{\sim}10.0{\times}1.3{\sim}3.3{\mu}m$. Phialides of T. cf. virens and T. harzianum were tending clustered, but it was solitary disposition in T. longibrachiatum. T. cf. virens was characterized by predominantly effuse conidiation, sparingly branched, and fertile to the apex and it was penicillate type. RAPD analysis could detect variability amongst three different species of Trichoderma using two newly designed URP-primers. However, intra-specific variation could not be detected in all the isolates except for rDNA sequence data classified Trichoderma isolates into three distinct groups representing three species. The profiles of rDNA sequences of isolates representing a species showed high similarity in T. cf. virens and T. harzianum. However, there was a variation in rDNA sequences of isolates representing T. longibrachiatum. The results of present study reveals that molecular techniques of RAPD and rDNA sequencing can greatly aid in classification based on morphology and precise identification of fast evolving species of Trichoderma.