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Austrian Center of Biological Resources and Applied Mycology (ACBR), Institute of Applied Microbiology (IAM), University of Agricultural Sciences, Nußdorfer Lände 11, A-1190 Wien, Austria
Irina Druzhinina 1
Research Area of Gene Technology and Applied Biochemistry (DGTAB), Institute of Chemical Engineering, University of Technology, Getreidemarkt 9/1665, A-1060 Wien, Austria
Walter Gams
Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures, P.O. Box 85167, 3506 AD Utrecht, The Netherlands
John Bissett
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Eastern Cereal and Oilseed Research Center, Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0C6
Doustmorad Zafari
Department of Plant Protection, Bu Ali Sina University, Hamadan, Iran
George Szakacs
Department of Agricultural Chemical Technology, Technical University of Budapest, 1111 Budapest, Gellert ter 4, Hungary
Alexei Koptchinski
Research Area of Gene Technology and Applied Biochemistry (DGTAB), Institute of Chemical Engineering, University of Technology, Getreidemarkt 9/1665, A-1060 Wien, Austria
Hansjörg Prillinger
Austrian Center of Biological Resources and Applied Mycology (ACBR), Institute of Applied Microbiology (IAM), University of Agricultural Sciences, Nußdorfer Lände 11, A-1190 Wien, Austria
Rasoul Zare
Department of Botany, Plant Pests Diseases Research Institute, PO Box 1454, Tehran, Iran
Christian P. Kubicek 2
Research Area of Gene Technology and Applied Biochemistry (DGTAB), Institute of Chemical Engineering, University of Technology, Getreidemarkt 9/1665, A-1060 Wien, Austria
| ABSTRACT |
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Trichoderma brevicompactum, a new species, was isolated from soil or tree bark in North, Central and South America, including the Caribbean Islands, and southwestern and southeastern Asia. Morphological and physiological characters, the internal transcribed spacer regions of the rDNA cluster (ITS1-5.8SrDNA-ITS2) and partial sequences of translation elongation factor 1-alpha (tef1) are described. Trichoderma brevicompactum is characterized by a pachybasium-type morphology, morphologically resembling other small-spored species referable to Trichoderma section Pachybasium but with essentially subglobose conidia. It is most closely related phylogenetically to Hypocrea lutea, from which it differs in morphological and physiological characters.
Key words: Biolog, Hypocrea, molecular phylogeny, Pachybasium, soil mycoflora, taxonomy, Trichoderma
| INTRODUCTION |
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We have undertaken a study recently of the global biodiversity of Trichoderma. From an initial investigation in central and southeastern Asia (Kullnig et al 2000
, Kubicek et al 2003
), seven new species in Trichoderma were differentiated by molecular and physiological methods and subsequently described by Bissett et al (2003)
. However, many more putative new species were collected from other geographic areas and are being studied in detail. One of these undescribed species, "Trichoderma sp. 1" (Kullnig-Gradinger et al 2002
), was encountered from diverse regions of North, Central and South America and southern Asia and shown to occupy a unique phylogenetic position within Trichoderma (Kullnig-Gradinger et al 2002
). This taxon is described here as Trichoderma brevicompactum, using a polyphasic (morphological characters, sequence analysis and substrate assimilation patterns) approach.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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DNA sequencing and phylogenetic analyses.
DNA was isolated from fresh mycelium as described previously (Turner et al 1997
). A region of nuclear rDNA, containing the internal transcribed spacer regions 1 and 2 and the 5.8S rDNA gene region, was amplified by PCR using the primer combinations SR6R and LR1 in 50 µL volumes (White et al 1990
) in an automated temperature-cycling device (Biotron, Biometra, Göttingen, FRG), using these parameters: 1 min initial denaturation at 94 C, followed by 30 cycles of 1 min denaturation at 94 C, 1 min primer annealing at 50 C, 90 s extension at 74 C and a final extension period of 7 min at 74 C.
A 0.2 kb fragment of tef1 was amplified by the primer pair tef1fw (5'-GTGAGCGTGGTATCACCATCG-3') and tef1rev (5'- GCCATCCTTGGAGACCAGC-3'), with this amplification protocol: 1 min initial denaturation (94 C), 30 cycles each of 1 min at 94 C, 1 min at 59 C, and 50 s at 74 C, and a final extension period of 7 min at 74 C.
Template DNA (100 µL) was prepared from PCR products by purifying it with a commercial kit (Cleanmix, Fa., Talent, Italy) and sequenced by cycle-sequencing (Robocycler 40 Stratagene, La Jolla, California) with the ThermoSequenase-kit (Amersham Life Science, Piscataway, New Jersey) by the aid of a LI-COR 4000L automatic sequencing system (LI-COR Inc., Lincoln, Nebraska) as described previously (Kindermann et al 1998
). The NCBI GenBank accession numbers for all sequences included in the analysis are given in TABLE I
.
DNA sequences were aligned first with Clustal X 1.81 (Thompson at al 1997
) and manually adjusted using Genedoc 2.6 (Nicholas and Nicholas 1997
). Single gaps were treated either as missing data or as the fifth base, as indicated, and sequence areas with ambiguous alignment were excluded from the analysis. Phylogenetic analyses were performed in PAUP* 4.0b10 using Hypocrea aureoviridis Plowr. & Cooke CBS 245.63 as outgroup for the sequence data from both loci, and T. harzianum Rifai CBS 226.95 as out-group for ITS1-5.8SrDNA-ITS2 sequence data. A parsimony analysis was performed using a heuristic search, with a starting tree obtained via stepwise addition, with random addition of sequences with 1000 replicates, tree-bisection-reconnection as the branch-swapping algorithm, MulTrees in effect. Stability of clades was assessed with 500 bootstrap replications.
Unique sequences obtained in this study have been submitted to GenBank (see TABLE I
). The MSA file and phylogenetic trees have been deposited in the Treebase (http://www.treebase.org/treebase/submit.html) database under the submission code SN1503.
Physiological studies. Trichoderma strains were inoculated on 2% malt agar plates and allowed to incubate under ambient daylight for 7 d or until sufficient conidiation developed for inoculation of the Biolog microplates. Conidia were collected by rolling a sterile cotton swab over areas of conidiation and dispersing them in a sterile inoculating fluid comprising a gelling agent (0.25% phytagel) and surfactant (0.03% Tween 40TM) in distilled water. A uniform spore concentration was achieved by adjusting the absorbance of the suspension to 75 ± 2% at 490 nm using a turbidimeter. One hundred µL of suspension was inoculated into each of the 96 wells of the Biolog FF MicroPlateTM (Biolog Inc., Hayward, California). Microplates were incubated at 26 C in the dark and absorbance readings at 490 nm (mitochondrial activity) and 750 nm (growth) recorded using a microplate reader after 24, 48, 72 and 96 h.
Statistical analyses.
Absorbance data at 490 nm and at 750 nm were analyzed separately. Absorbance readings at 750 nm were used as a measure of mycelial density, interpreted as assimilation and growth on the test substrate. The absorbance spectrum of hyaline mycelium is essentially level over the range of 490750 nm (Kubicek et al 2003
). Therefore, a corrected value for mitochondrial activity, indicated by the production of a colored formazan salt resulting from the reduction of INT mediated by succinate dehydrogenase activity in the citric acid cycle, was obtained by subtracting the 750 nm reading (490750 nm). Absorbance data were not corrected for growth in the control well, which was treated as an independent variable in the analyses. Cluster analyses were performed using NTSYS (Rolf 1997
), based on a similarity matrix using the product-moment correlation coefficient and employing the UPGMA clustering method. SAS was used for analyses of variance (ANOVA) and canonical variate analyses (SAS Institute Inc. 1989
). There were insufficient degrees of freedom (37 samples, 96 variables) to perform multivariate analyses on the entire dataset. Instead, univariate ANOVAs were performed on data for each of the 95 different carbon-substrates and the control. The substrates were ranked on the ANOVA F-values, and the degree of significance of the among-species variation in the ANOVAs. An arbitrary number of variables (n = 18, less than half the number of isolates) were selected to perform canonical variate analysis, choosing the highest ranked variables. Wilks Lambda and Pillais trace were employed to test the significance of the canonical variate analysis. Variable loadings from the "between canonical structure" were used to interpret the two eigenvectors obtained from the analysis.
| TAXONOMY |
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Holotypus cultura sicca ex DAOM 231232 ex solo subter Helianthibus isolatus, Geneva, NY, USA (S. Petzolt and G.E. Harman).
Colonies. On oatmeal agar fast growing, exceeding 100 mm diam in 5 d at 20 ± 1 C, richly sporulating, usually in broad compacted zones. On MA moderately fast growing, 2233 mm diam after 3 d and 4459 mm after 4 d at 20 ± 1 C. Colonies up to 85 mm diam in 3 d on MA at the optimum temperature of 3032 C. Maximum temperature for growth 3536 C. However, conidiation was absent at this temperature. Colonies characterized by densely aggregated conidiophores in coalescent pustules, which become greenish olivaceous to glaucous blue-green (28 EF 7) or grey olivaceous.
Conidiophores. Hyaline, smooth walled, pyramidally verticillately branched in the Pachybasium-type pattern. Conspicuous short sterile appendages visible in young conidiogenous pustules but inconspicuous or absent in older cultures. Conidiophore main axes and first-order branches short and usually 45.5 µm wide, terminal branches 37.5 x 34 µm.
Phialides. In whorls of 25, mostly broadly ampulliform with a short slender neck, 56.5 x (3)3.54 µm in the broadest part, solitary terminal phialides or phialides from less complexly branched conidiophores more elongate, up to 812 x 5 µm. The broad and short phialides and branches giving a compact, compressed appearance to the conidiogenous structures.
Conidia. Subglobose or short ellipsoidal in some strains, mostly 2.03.0 µm diam, with a minimally protruding basal hilum, smooth-walled, appearing pale grey-green microscopically.
Chlamydospores. Developing in older cultures in the submerged mycelium, subhyaline, intercalary or terminal, solitary, oblong to ellipsoidal or pyriform, (6)10 x 46 µm.
HOLOTY PE: UNITED STATES. NEW YORK: Geneva, New York State Agricultural Experimental Station, isolated from soil in a sunflower field 20 Jun 2000 (S. Petzolt and G. E. Harman). DAOM 231232 (dried culture ex MA3296). Also deposited in MA 3296, CBS 109720.
For additional material examined see TABLE I
.
Phylogeny.
Kullnig-Gradinger et al (2002)
found that T. brevicompactum (as "Trichoderma sp. 1") formed a clade together with Hypocrea lutea (Tode: Fr.) Petch and Hypocrea spp. of section Hypocreanum (Bissett 1991a
). To test this hypothesis, we amplified and sequenced a 0.2 kb fragment of tef1 from 11 isolates and subjected it together with the ITS1-5.8Sr-DNA-ITS2 sequences to a combined parsimony analysis with PAUP, using taxa from additional defined phylogenetic clades of Trichoderma as landmarks. The result from this combined analysis (FIG. 3
) shows that T. brevicompactum forms a bifurcating clade, of which H. lutea was a sister clade. Bifurcation was due to the two strains from Iran and a strain from Costa Rica, which exhibited the most divergent tef1 haplotypes. Parsimony analysis of ITS1-5.8SrDNA-ITS2 sequences from all 16 T. brevicompactum isolates showed that they formed a homogeneous clade for which the isolates from Peru and Wisconsin formed a moderately supported basal branch (FIG. 4
). The data provide clear molecular genetic support to treat T. brevicompactum as a new taxon.
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-cyclo-dextrin and maltitol.
A canonical variate analysis was performed on the 750 nm absorbance readings after 96 h incubation for the 18 most significant substrates. All three canonical variates were significant (P < 0.01, TABLE IV
). However, 94% of total variation was represented on the first two canonical variates. A plot of the 37 Trichoderma strains representing the four related species on the first two canonical variates is provided in FIG. 6
. The plot clearly distinguishes T. brevicompactum from the other species. The first canonical variate distinguishes T. harzianum from the other three species. Examination of the variable loadings from the "between canonical structure" for the first two canonical variables (TABLE V
) indicates that T. harzianum is distinguished by faster growth on the organic acids sebacic acid, quinic acid, malic acid, and the mono-methyl ester of succinic acid, the amino acids L-phenylalanine, L-serine and L-alanine, the readily assimilated amino sugar N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, and the amide succinamic acid. Conversely, T. harzianum has slower growth on a wide range of sugars including sucrose, D-raffinose, D-trehalose, D-xylose, D-galactose, stachyose, gentobiose and the glycoside
-methyl-D-glucoside. T. brevicompactum is distinguished from the other three species on the second canonical variate. The variable loadings on the second canonical variate indicate poor assimilation of all of the most highly significant variables in the analysis, with the exception of succinamic acid, which was not assimilated by H. lutea or T. virens. H. lutea and T. virens cluster closely in the canonical analysis, indicating similar patterns of substrate utilization in these two species.
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| DISCUSSION |
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Phylogenetically, T. brevicompactum is related closely to H. lutea, which corroborates previous findings (Kullnig-Gradinger et al 2002
). The inclusion of additional isolates of H. lutea and its anamorph, Gliocladium viride, in the phylogenetic analysis gave the same result (data not shown). Also, neither the inclusion of additional taxa from "clade B", which contains most of the species with Pachybasium-type morphology, such as T. minutisporum, T. tomentosum, T. oblongisporum and T. fertile (Kullnig-Gradinger et al 2002
), nor using T. longibrachiatum instead of H. aureoviridis as outgroup changed the fact that H. lutea remained phylogenetically the sister group of T. brevicompactum (I. Druzhinina unpublished data). The anamorph of Hypocrea lutea (Gliocladium viride) has morphology referable to Gliocladium. Its close phylogenetic relationship with species referable to Trichoderma section Pachybasium was unexpected because H. lutea morphologically does not fit Trichoderma and especially does not fit section Pachybasium. The phylogenetic position of H. lutea suggests that the genetic traits responsible for either Gliocladium or Pachybasium anamorph morphology can be lost or gained within a short evolutionary period. The assumption that the development of a typical Pachybasium-like morphology easily can be gained during speciation and is not the result of a long evolutionary development also would explain why Trichoderma section Pachybasium (Bissett 1991b
) is paraphyletic (Kindermann et al 1998
, Kullnig-Gradinger et al 2002
) and separable into two major phylogenetic groups (which have been termed clade A and clade B; Kullnig-Gradinger et al 2002
). One of these clades (A) contains most members of section Trichoderma, whereas the other (B) forms a highly diverse but monophyletic sister group. Because of its convenience, the morphological descriptor "pachybasium-like" is still used to describe a characteristic type of conidiophore. However, the large group of species in clade B warrants a formal taxonomic status within Hypocrea/Trichoderma that takes evolutionary relationships into account.
Of note, the phylogenetic analysis clearly separated H. lactea and H. citrina from T. brevicompactum and H. lutea, indicating that these two taxon pairs are phylogenetically less close than previously thought (Kullnig-Gradinger et al 2002
).
Isolates investigated in this study came from widely diverse geographic areas such as North, Central and South America, the Caribbean, the Persian Gulf region, southern India and Papua New Guinea (see TABLE I
). These isolates came from hot and humid locales (Papua New Guinea, Mexico, India, Costa Rica, Union Island, Colombia and Peru). In contrast, the isolates from the northern United States came from areas with cooler temperatures and the isolates from Iran come from areas with little humidity. Trichoderma brevicompactum therefore seems to be a cosmopolitan versatile species, capable of adapting to comparatively diverse climatic conditions.
Within the 13 strains investigated, four ITS and seven tef1 haplotypes could be distinguished and all of the variations in ITS occurred in ITS1. In this regard, T. brevicompactum belongs to the genetically more variable species of Trichoderma (Kubicek et al 2003
). It should be noted that the strains from Costa Rica and Iran exhibited the highest genetic distance to the other strains. Since a high genetic variability and basal clustering in phylogenetic trees is an indication for an origin of a species, the center of diversification must have been an area from which strains moved to both western Asia and Central America and from which strains have not yet been found. However, although this hypothesis is based on several strains from diverse locations, the low total number of strains might mask the true origin of this species.
In spite of this genetic variability, individual isolates of T. brevicompactum display an excellent consistency in their physiological properties. Kubicek et al (2003)
, investigating the physiological variation of about 90 strains of Trichoderma comprising 16 taxa, showed that physiological clustering is not necessarily a consistent criterion for species identification in Trichoderma and that some taxa, such as T. harzianum, are physiologically diverse. The finding of a consistency in nutrient assimilation among geographically diverse isolates of T. brevicompactum indicates that T. brevicompactum occupies an ecological niche for which a defined range of nutritional abilities is essential. In this regard, T. brevicompactum used most carbohydrates (mono-, oligo- and polysaccharides) and carbohydrate-related compounds (polyols) at higher rates than other Trichoderma taxa examined that used amino acids and organic acids much less efficiently. Trichoderma/Hypocrea, it is speculated, originally had been primarily mycoparasitic fungi, which later acquired the ability to follow their hosts into their habitat (decaying wood) and compete for their nutrients (Klein and Eveleigh 1998
). The physiological properties of T. brevicompactum, in combination with its comparably high temperature for optimal growth (3032 C), may indicate that this fungus is especially adapted to the degradation of plant polysaccharides at or close to the soil surface.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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1 These authors contributed equally to this paper. ![]()
2 Corresponding author. E-mail: ckubicek{at}mail.zserv.tuwien.ac.at
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