The effect of cultivation condition of two locally isolated ascomycetes strains namely Trichoderma asperellum UPM1 and Aspergillus fumigatus UPM2 were compared in submerged and solid state fermentation. Physical evaluation on water absorption index, solubility index and chemical properties of lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose content as well as the cellulose structure on crystallinity and amorphous region of treated oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) (resulted in partial removal of lignin), sago pith residues (SPR) and oil palm decanter cake towards cellulases production were determined. Submerged fermentation shows significant cellulases production for both strains in all types of substrates. Crystallinity of cellulose and its chemical composition mainly holocellulose components was found to significantly affect the total cellulase synthesis in submerged fermentation as the higher crystallinity index, and holocellulose composition will increase cellulase production. Treated OPEFB apparently induced the total cellulases from T. asperellum UPM1 and A. fumigatus UPM2 with 0.66 U/mg FPase, 53.79 U/mg CMCase, 0.92 U/mg β-glucosidase and 0.67 U/mg FPase, 47.56 U/mg and 0.14 U/mg β-glucosidase, respectively. Physical properties of water absorption and solubility for OPEFB and SPR also had shown significant correlation on the cellulases production.
Cellulase is an enzyme that converts the polymer structure of polysaccharides into fermentable sugars. The high market demand for this enzyme together with the variety of applications in the industry has brought the research on cellulase into focus. In this study, crude cellulase was produced from oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) pretreated with 2% NaOH with autoclave, which was composed of 59.7% cellulose, 21.6% hemicellulose, and 12.3% lignin using Trichoderma asperellum UPM1 and Aspergillus fumigatus UPM2. Approximately 0.8 U/ml of FPase, 24.7 U/ml of CMCase and 5.0 U/ml of β-glucosidase were produced by T. asperellum UPM1 at a temperature of 35 °C and at an initial pH of 7.0. A 1.7 U/ml of FPase, 24.2 U/ml of CMCase, and 1.1 U/ml of β-glucosidase were produced by A. fumigatus UPM2 at a temperature of 45 °C and at initial pH of 6.0. The crude cellulase was best produced at 1% of substrate concentration for both T. asperellum UPM1 and A. fumigatus UPM2. The hydrolysis percentage of pretreated OPEFB using 5% of crude cellulase concentration from T. asperellum UPM1 and A. fumigatus UPM2 were 3.33% and 19.11%, with the reducing sugars concentration of 1.47 and 8.63 g/l, respectively.
Sago pith residue is one of the most abundant lignocellulosic biomass which can serve as an alternative cheap substrate for fermentable sugars production. This residue is the fibrous waste left behind after the starch extraction process and contains significant amounts of starch (58%), cellulose (23%), hemicellulose (9.2%) and lignin (3.9%). The conversion of sago pith residue into fermentable sugars is commonly performed using cellulolytic enzymes or known as cellulases. In this study, crude cellulases were produced by two local isolates, Trichoderma asperellum UPM1 and Aspergillus fumigatus, UPM2 using sago pith residue as substrate. A. fumigatus UPM2 gave the highest FPase, CMCase and β-glucosidase activities of 0.39, 23.99 and 0.78 U/ml, respectively, on day 5. The highest activity of FPase, CMCase and β-glucosidase by T. asperellum UPM1 was 0.27, 12.03 and 0.42 U/ml, respectively, on day 7. The crude enzyme obtained from A. fumigatus UPM2 using β-glucosidase as the rate-limiting enzyme (3.9, 11.7 and 23.4 IU) was used for the saccharification process to convert 5% (w/v) sago pith residue into reducing sugars. Hydrolysis of sago pith residue using crude enzyme containing β-glucosidase with 23.4 IU, produced by A. fumigatus UPM2 gave higher reducing sugars production of 20.77 g/l with overall hydrolysis percentage of 73%.
Efficacy of a β-1,4-glucosidase from Trichoderma harzianum T12 (ThBglT12) in disrupting the cell wall of the phytopathogenic fungus M. phaseolina (Macrophomina phaseolina) was studied, as the underlying molecular mechanisms of cell wall recognition remains elusive. In this study, the binding location identified by a consensus of residues predicted by COACH tool, blind docking, and multiple sequence alignment revealed that molecular recognition by ThBglT12 occurred through interactions between the α-1,3-glucan, β-1,3-glucan, β-1,3/1,4-glucan, and chitin components of M. phaseolina, with corresponding binding energies of -7.4, -7.6, -7.5 and -7.8 kcal/mol. The residue consensus verified the participation of Glu172, Tyr304, Trp345, Glu373, Glu430, and Trp431 in the active site pocket of ThBglT12 to bind the ligands, of which Trp345 was the common interacting residue. Root mean square deviation (RMSD), root mean square fluctuation (RMSF), total energy, and minimum distance calculation from molecular dynamics (MD) simulation further confirmed the stability and the closeness of the binding ligands into the ThBglT12 active site pocket. The h-bond occupancy by Glu373 and Trp431 instated the role of the nucleophile for substrate recognition and specificity, crucial for cleaving the β-1,4 linkage. Further investigation showed that the proximity of Glu373 to the anomeric carbon of β-1,3/1,4-glucan (3.5 Å) and chitin (5.5 Å) indicates the nucleophiles' readiness to form enzyme-substrate intermediates. Plus, the neighboring water molecule appeared to be correctly positioned and oriented towards the anomeric carbon to hydrolyze the β-1,3/1,4-glucan and chitin, in less than 4.0 Å. In a nutshell, the study verified that the ThBglT12 is a good alternative fungicide to inhibit the growth of M. phaseolina.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.
Many researchers have focused chitosan as a source of potential bioactive material during the past few decades. However, chitosan has several drawbacks to be utilised in biological applications, including poor solubility under physiological conditions. Therefore, a new interest has recently emerged on partially hydrolysed chitosan, chitosan oligosaccharides (COS). In this study, degradation of chitosan was performed by Cellulase from Trichoderma reesei® 1.5L and Response Surface Methodology (RSM) were employed to optimize the hydrolysis temperature, pH, enzyme concentration and substrate concentration. Optimization of cellulase T. reesei® using central composite design (CCD) was to obtain optimum parameters and all the factors showed significant effects (p˂0.05). The maximum response, Celluclast® activity (1.268 U) was obtained by assaying the process at 49.79oC, pH 4.5, 3% (v/w) of enzyme concentration and 25% (w/v) concentration of chitosan for 24 hours.
Basal stem rot (BSR) disease caused by the fungus Ganoderma boninense is the most serious disease affecting the oil palm; this is because the disease escapes the early disease detection. The biocontrol agent Trichoderma harzianum can protect the disease only at the early stage of the disease. In the present study, the expression levels of three oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) chitinases encoding EgCHI1, EgCHI2, and EgCHI3 at 2, 5, and 8 weeks inoculation were measured in oil palm leaves from plants treated with G. boninense or T. harzianum alone or both.
Cellulase production was carried out by solid state bioconversion (SSB) method using rice straw, a lignocellulosic material and agricultural waste, as the substrate of three Trichoderma spp. and Phanerochaete chrysosporium in lab-scale experiments. The results were compared to select the best fungi among them for the production of cellulase. Phanerochaete chrysosporium was found to be the best among these species of fungi, which produced the highest cellulase enzyme of 1.43 IU/mL of filter paper activity (FPase) and 2.40 IU/mL of carboxymethylcellulose activity (CMCase). The "glucosamine" and "reducing sugar" parameters were observed to evaluate the growth and substrate utilization in the experiments. In the case of Phanerochaete Chrysosporium, the highest glucosamine concentration was 1.60 g/L and a high concentration of the release of reducing sugar was measured as 2.58 g/L obtained on the 4th day of fermentation. The pH values were also recorded. The range of the pH was about 5.15 to 5.56 in the case of Phanerochaete Chrysosporium.
Matched MeSH terms: Trichoderma/enzymology*; Trichoderma/growth & development
In this study, a newly isolated ascomycete fungus Trichoderma lixii F21 was explored to bioremediate the polar [Alizarin Red S (ARS)] and non-polar [Quinizarine Green SS (QGSS)] anthraquinone dyes. The bioremediation of ARS and QGSS by T. lixii F21 was found to be 77.78 and 98.31 %, respectively, via biosorption and enzymatic processes within 7 days of incubation. The maximum biosorption (ARS = 33.7 % and QGSS = 74.7 %) and enzymatic biodegradation (ARS = 44.1 % and QGSS = 23.6 %) were observed at pH 4 and 27 °C in the presence of glucose and yeast extract. The laccase and catechol 1,2-dioxygenase produced by T. lixii F21 were involved in the molecular conversions of ARS and QGSS to phenolic and carboxylic acid compounds, without the formation of toxic aromatic amines. This study suggests that T. lixii F21 may be a good candidate for the bioremediation of industrial effluents contaminated with anthraquinone dyes.
The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of Trichoderma harzianum and Bacillus thuringiensis alone or with gradual levels of NPK on photosynthesis, growth, fruit quality, aroma improvement and reduced radionuclides of key lime fruits. The lemon seedlings were treated with (T0) without fertilizers as control, (T1) 100g of NPK at 100%, (T2) 5 g of Trichoderma. harzianum at 50% + 50 g of NPK at 50%, (T3) 5 g of Bacillus thuringiensis at 50% + 50 g of NPK at 50 %, (T4) 7.5 g of Trichoderma harzianum at 75% + 25 g of NPK at 25 %, (T5) 7.5 g of Bacillus thuringiensis at 75% + 25 g of NPK at 25 %, (T6) 10 g of Trichoderma harzianum at 100 % and (T7)10 g of Bacillus thuringiensis at 100 %. The results showed that T2 increased net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, internal CO2 concentration, fresh and dry root biomass by 209%, 74%, 56%, 376%, 69.4% and 71.6%, while, T5 increased root volume, root length, and root tip number by 27.1%, 167%, and 67%, respectively over the control trees. The microbial treatments developed cortex, vascular cylinder and tracheal elements of the root. Fruit number, length, diameter, weight, pulp thickness, pulp/peel ratio, juice, total soluble solids (TSS), pigment contents and antioxidant activity increased significantly in the T2 treatment. Vitamin C, total phenols, total flavonoids, and total sugar content increased by 1.59-, 1.66-, 1.44- and 2.07- fold in T5 treated fruits compared to the control. The two microbes increased volatile compounds and decreased radionucleotides in the fruit, moreover, 27 identified and 2 (two) unmatched volatile compounds were identified by GCMS analysis. It is concluded that T. harzianum and B. thuringiensis with 25-50 g NPK treatments improved photosynthesis, root structure, fruit growth, fruit quality, aroma and lessened radionuclides in key lime fruits.
A recombinant Trichoderma reesei cellulase was used for the ultrasound-mediated hydrolysis of soluble carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and insoluble cellulose of various particle sizes. The hydrolysis was carried out at low intensity sonication (2.4-11.8 W cm(-2) sonication power at the tip of the sonotrode) using 10, 20, and 40% duty cycles. [A duty cycle of 10%, for example, was obtained by sonicating for 1 s followed by a rest period (no sonication) of 9 s.] The reaction pH and temperature were always 4.8 and 50°C, respectively. In all cases, sonication enhanced the rate of hydrolysis relative to nonsonicated controls. The hydrolysis of CMC was characterized by Michaelis-Menten kinetics. The Michaelis-Menten parameter of the maximum reaction rate Vmax was enhanced by sonication relative to controls, but the value of the saturation constant Km was reduced. The optimal sonication conditions were found to be a 10% duty cycle and a power intensity of 11.8 W cm(-2) . Under these conditions, the maximum rate of hydrolysis of soluble CMC was nearly double relative to control. In the hydrolysis of cellulose, an increasing particle size reduced the rate of hydrolysis. At any fixed particle size, sonication at a 10% duty cycle and 11.8 W cm(-2) power intensity improved the rate of hydrolysis relative to control. Under the above mentioned optimal sonication conditions, the enzyme lost about 20% of its initial activity in 20 min. Sonication was useful in accelerating the enzyme catalyzed saccharification of cellulose.
The expression profiles of Δ9 stearoyl-acyl carrier protein desaturase (SAD1 and SAD2) and type 3 metallothionein (MT3-A and MT3-B) were investigated in seedlings of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) artificially inoculated with the pathogenic fungus Ganoderma boninense and the symbiotic fungus Trichoderma harzianum. Expression of SAD1 and MT3-A in roots and SAD2 in leaves were significantly up-regulated in G. boninense inoculated seedlings at 21 d after treatment when physical symptoms had not yet appeared and thereafter decreased to basal levels when symptoms became visible. Our finding demonstrated that the SAD1 expression in leaves was significantly down-regulated to negligible levels at 42 and 63 d after treatment. The transcripts of MT3 genes were synthesized in G. boninense inoculated leaves at 42 d after treatment, and the analyses did not show detectable expression of these genes before 42 d after treatment. In T. harzianum inoculated seedlings, the expression levels of SAD1 and SAD2 increased gradually and were stronger in roots than leaves, while for MT3-A and MT3-B, the expression levels were induced in leaves at 3d after treatment and subsequently maintained at same levels until 63d after treatment. The MT3-A expression was significantly up-regulated in roots at 3d after treatment and thereafter were maintained at this level. Both SAD and MT3 expression were maintained at maximum levels or at levels higher than basal. This study demonstrates that oil palm was able to distinguish between pathogenic and symbiotic fungal interactions, thus resulting in different transcriptional activation profiles of SAD and MT3 genes. Increases in expression levels of SAD and MT3 would lead to enhanced resistance against G. boninense and down-regulation of genes confer potential for invasive growth of the pathogen. Differences in expression profiles of SAD and MT3 relate to plant resistance mechanisms while supporting growth enhancing effects of symbiotic T. harzianum.
The diversity of Trichoderma (Hypocreales, Ascomycota) colonizing leaf litter as well as the rhizosphere of Garcinia macrophylla (Clusiaceae) was investigated in primary and secondary rain forests in Colombian Amazonia. DNA barcoding of 107 strains based on the internal transcribed spacers 1 and 2 (ITS1 and 2) of the ribosomal RNA gene cluster and the partial sequence of the translation elongation factor 1 alpha (tef1) gene revealed that the diversity of Trichoderma was dominated (71 %) by three common cosmopolitan species, namely Trichoderma harzianum sensu lato (41 %), Trichoderma spirale (17 %) and Trichoderma koningiopsis (13 %). Four ITS 1 and 2 phylotypes (13 strains) could not be identified with certainty. Multigene phylogenetic analysis and phenotype profiling of four strains with an ITS1 and 2 phylotype similar to Trichoderma strigosum revealed a new sister species of the latter that is described here as Trichoderma strigosellum sp. nov. Sequence similarity searches revealed that this species also occurs in soils of Malaysia and Cameroon, suggesting a pantropical distribution.
Fungi of the Trichoderma species are valued industrial enzymes in support of the 'zero-waste' technology to convert agro-industrial biomass into valuable products, i.e. nanocellulose (NC). In this study, an in silico approach using substrate docking and molecular dynamic (MD) simulation was used to predict the order of which the multilayers of cellulosic polymers, i.e. lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose in oil palm leaves (OPL) are degraded by fungal enzymes, endocellulase and exocellulase. The study aimed to establish the catalytic tendencies of the enzymes to optimally degrade the cellulosic components of OPL for high yield production of NC. Energy minimized endocellulase and exocellulase models revealed satisfactory scores of PROCHECK (90.0% and 91.2%), Verify3D (97.23% and 98.85%) and ERRAT (95.24% and 91.00%) assessments. Active site prediction by blind docking, COACH meta-server and multiple sequence alignment indicated the catalytic triads for endocellulase and exocellulase were Ser116-His205-Glu249 and Ser382-Arg124-Asp385, respectively. Binding energy of endocellulase docked with hemicellulose (-6.0 kcal mol-1) was the most favourable followed by lignin (-5.6 kcal mol-1) and cellulose (-4.4 kcal mol-1). Exocellulase, contrarily, bonded favorably with lignin (-8.7 kcal mol-1), closely followed by cellulose (-8.5 kcal mol-1) and hemicellulose (-8.4 kcal mol-1). MDs simulations showed that interactions of complexes, endocellulase-hemicellulose and the exocellulase-cellulose being the most stable. Thus, the findings of the study successfully identified the specific actions of sugar-acting enzymes for NC production. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.
The presence of phorbol esters (PEs) with toxic properties limits the use of Jatropha curcas kernel in the animal feed industry. Therefore, suitable methods to detoxify PEs have to be developed to render the material safe as a feed ingredient. In the present study, the biological treatment of the extracted PEs-rich fraction with non-pathogenic fungi (Trichoderma harzianum JQ350879.1, T. harzianum JQ517493.1, Paecilomyces sinensis JQ350881.1, Cladosporium cladosporioides JQ517491.1, Fusarium chlamydosporum JQ350882.1, F. chlamydosporum JQ517492.1 and F. chlamydosporum JQ350880.1) was conducted by fermentation in broth cultures. The PEs were detected by liquid chromatography-diode array detector-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC-DAD-ESIMS) and quantitatively monitored by HPLC using phorbol-12-myristate 13-acetate as the standard. At day 30 of incubation, two T. harzianum spp., P. sinensis and C. cladosporioides significantly (p < 0.05) removed PEs with percentage losses of 96.9%-99.7%, while F. chlamydosporum strains showed percentage losses of 88.9%-92.2%. All fungal strains could utilize the PEs-rich fraction for growth. In the cytotoxicity assay, cell viabilities of Chang liver and NIH 3T3 fibroblast cell lines were less than 1% with the untreated PEs-rich fraction, but 84.3%-96.5% with the fungal treated PEs-rich fraction. There was no inhibition on cell viability for normal fungal growth supernatants. To conclude, Trichoderma spp., Paecilomyces sp. and Cladosporium sp. are potential microbes for the detoxification of PEs.
A simple, fast, repeatable and less laborious sample preparation protocol was developed and applied for the analysis of biocontrol fungus Trichoderma harzianum strain FA1132 by using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The match factors for sample spectra with respect to the mass spectra library of fungal volatile compounds were determined and used to study the complex hydrocarbons and other volatile compounds, which were separated by using different capillary columns with nonpolar, medium polar and high polar stationary phases. To date, more than 278 volatile compounds (with spectral match factor at least 90%) such as normal saturated hydrocarbons (C7-C30), cyclohexane, cyclopentane, fatty acids, alcohols, esters, sulfur-containing compounds, simple pyrane and benzene derivatives have been identified. Most of these compounds have not previously been reported. The method described in this paper is a more convenient research tool for the detection of volatile compounds from the cultures of T. harzianum.
Trichoderma species are commercially applied as biocontrol agents against numerous plant pathogenic fungi due to their production of antifungal metabolites, competition for nutrients and space, and mycoparasitism. However, currently the identification of Trichoderma species from throughout the world based on micro-morphological descriptions is tedious and prone to error. The correct identification of Trichoderma species is important as several traits are species-specific. The Random Amplified Microsatellites (RAMS) analysis done using five primers in this study showed different degrees of the genetic similarity among 42 isolates of this genus. The genetic similarity values were found to be in the range of 12.50-85.11% based on a total of 76 bands scored in the Trichoderma isolates. Of these 76 bands, 96.05% were polymorphic, 3.95% were monomorphic and 16% were exclusive bands. Two bands (250 bp and 200 bp) produced by primer LR-5 and one band (250 bp) by primer P1A were present in all the Trichoderma isolates collected from healthy and infected oil palm plantation soils. Cluster analysis based on UPGMA of the RAMS marker data showed that T. harzianum, T. virens and T. longibrachiatum isolates were grouped into different clades and lineages. In this study we found that although T. aureoviride isolates were morphologically different when compared to T. harzianum isolates, the UPGMA cluster analysis showed that the majority isolates of T. aureoviride (seven from nine) were closely related to the isolates of T. harzianum.
Shrimps have been a popular raw material for the burgeoning marine and food industry contributing to increasing marine waste. Shrimp waste, which is rich in organic compounds is an abundant source of chitin, a natural polymer of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GluNac), a reducing sugar. For this respect, chitinase-producing fungi have been extensively studied as biocontrol agents. Locally isolated Trichoderma virens UKM1 was used in this study. The effect of agitation and aeration rates using colloidal chitin as control substrate in a 2-l stirred tank reactor gave the best agitation and aeration rates at 200 rpm and 0.33 vvm with 4.1 U/l per hour and 5.97 U/l per hour of maximum volumetric chitinase activity obtained, respectively. Microscopic observations showed shear sensitivity at higher agitation rate of the above system. The oxygen uptake rate during the highest chitinase productivity obtained using sun-dried ground shrimp waste of 1.74 mg of dissolved oxygen per gram of fungal biomass per hour at the kappaL a of 8.34 per hour.
A new electrochemical biosensor is described for voltammetric detection of gene sequence related to Trichoderma harzianum. The sensor involves immobilization of a 20 base single-stranded probe (ssDNA), which is complementary to a specific gene sequence related to T. harzianum on a gold electrode through specific adsorption. The DNA probe was used to determine the amount of target gene in solution using methylene blue (MB) as the electrochemical indicator. The covalently immobilized probe could selectively hybridize with the target DNA to form a hybrid on the surface despite the bases being attached to the electrode. The changes in the peak currents of methylene blue (MB), an electroactive label, were observed upon hybridization of probe with the target. Peak currents were found to increase in the following order: hybrid-modified AuE and the probe-modified AuE which localized to the affinity of MB. Control experiments with the non-complementary oligonucleotides were performed to assess whether the DNA biosensor responds selectively, via hybridization, to the target. DNA biosensor also able to detect microorganism at the species levels without nucleic acid amplification. The redox current was linearly related to the concentration of target oligonucleotide DNA, ranged from 1-20 ppm. Numerous factors, affecting the probe immobilization, target hybridization and indicator binding reactions are optimized to maximize the sensitivity and reduce the assay time.
Chitinases are glycosyl hydrolases that cleave the β-1,4-glycosidic linkages between N-acetylglucosamine residues in chitin which is a major component of fungal cell wall. Plant chitinases hydrolyze fungal chitin to chitin oligosaccharides that serve as elicitors of plant defense system against fungal pathogens. However, plants synthesize many chitinase isozymes and some of them are not pathogenesis-related. In this study, three full-length cDNA sequences encoding a putative chitinase (EgChit3-1) and two chitinase-like proteins (EgChit1-1 and EgChit5-1) have been cloned from oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The abundance of these transcripts in the roots and leaves of oil palm seedlings treated with Ganoderma boninense (a fungal pathogen) or Trichoderma harzianum (an avirulent symbiont), and a combination of both fungi at 3, 6 and 12 weeks post infection were profiled by real time quantitative reverse-transcription (qRT)-PCR. Our findings showed that the gene expression of EgChit3-1 increased significantly in the roots of oil palm seedlings treated with either G. boninense or T. harzianum and a combination of both; whereas the gene expression of EgChit1-1 in the treated roots of oil palm seedlings was not significantly higher compared to those of the untreated oil palm roots. The gene expression of EgChit5-1 was only higher in the roots of oil palm seedlings treated with T. harzianum compared to those of the untreated oil palm roots. In addition, the gene expression of EgChit1-1 and EgChit3-1 showed a significantly higher gene expression in the leaf samples of oil palm seedlings treated with either G. boninense or T. harzianum.
Basal stem rot is one of the major diseases of oil palm (Elaies guineensis Jacq.) caused by pathogenic Ganoderma species. Trichoderma and mycorrhizae were proposed to be able to reduce the disease severity. However, their roles in improving oil palm defence system by possibly inducing defence-related genes in the host are not well characterized. To better understand that, transcript profiles of eleven putative defence-related cDNAs in the roots of oil palm inoculated with Trichoderma harzianum T32 and mycorrhizae at different time points were studied. Transcripts encoding putative Bowman-Birk protease inhibitor (EgBBI2) and defensin (EgDFS) increased more than 2 fold in mycorrhizae-treated roots at 6 weeks post inoculation (wpi) compared to those in controls. Transcripts encoding putative dehydrin (EgDHN), glycine-rich RNA binding protein (EgGRRBP), isoflavone reductase (EgIFR), type 2 ribosome inactivating protein (EgT2RIP), and EgDFS increased in the oil palm roots treated with T. harzianum at 6 and/or 12 wpi compared to those in the controls. Some of these genes were also expressed in oil palm roots treated with Ganoderma boninense. This study provides an insight of some defence-related genes induced by Trichoderma and mycorrhizae, and their roles as potential agents to boost the plant defence system.