Three New Reports of Trichoderma in Algeria: T. atrobrunneum, (South) T. longibrachiatum (South), and T. afroharzianum (Northwest)

Abstract

The genus Trichoderma (Hypocreaceae, Ascomycota) consists of globally distributed fungi. In Algeria, few studies have explored the diversity of this genus, and in the majority of works identification is based on phenotypic characters. Here, nine Trichoderma strains were collected from Algeria in different locations, namely: seven in the south and two in the northwest. Also, we used 17 reference strains that were taken from the NCBI database for the phylogeny analysis. Our study is based on an integrated approach using micro and macro phenotypic characters and multiple DNA analysis (internal transcribed spacer (ITS): ITS1–4 region; translation elongation factor 1: tef1 gene). Our study reports, for the first time, three species of Trichoderma in Algeria, namely: T. atrobrunneum (south), T. longibrachiatum (south), and T. afroharzianum (northwest). It is noteworthy that T. atrobrunneum is a species previously described in European Mediterranean countries, and its presence in the soil of southern Algeria indicates that the diversity of the geographic environments and different climates of Algeria offers the possibility for the survival of diverse Trichoderma species. Knowledge on the diversity of these fungi may contribute to their future exploitation in biotechnological applications and to the biological control of plant diseases.