Ferricrocin, the intracellular siderophore of Trichoderma virens, is involved in growth, conidiation, gliotoxin biosynthesis and induction of systemic resistance in maize.

Fungal siderophores are known to be involved in iron acquisition and storage, as well as pathogenicity of mammals and plants. As avirulent plant symbionts, Trichoderma spp. colonize roots and induce resistance responses both locally and systemically.

Surfactin variants mediate species-specific biofilm formation and root colonization in Bacillus.

Cyclic lipopeptides (cLP) and especially surfactins produced by Bacillus spp. trigger biofilm formation and root colonization and are crucial for biocontrol activity and systemic resistance in plants. Bacillus atrophaeus 176s isolated from the moss Tortella tortuosa produces the cLP fengycins, iturins and surfactins, possesses antifungal activities and can protect tomato, lettuce and sugar beet against Rhizoctonia solani infection.

Automated LC-HRMS(/MS) approach for the annotation of fragment ions derived from stable isotope labeling-assisted untargeted metabolomics.

Structure elucidation of biological compounds is still a major bottleneck of untargeted LC-HRMS approaches in metabolomics research. The aim of the present study was to combine stable isotope labeling and tandem mass spectrometry for the automated interpretation of the elemental composition of fragment ions and thereby facilitate the structural characterization of metabolites. The software tool FragExtract was developed and evaluated with LC-HRMS/MS spectra of both native (12)C- and uniformly (13)C (U-(13)C)-labeled analytical standards of 10 fungal substances in pure solvent and spiked into fungal culture filtrate of Fusarium graminearum respectively.

Isotope-assisted screening for iron-containing metabolites reveals a high degree of diversity among known and unknown siderophores produced by Trichoderma spp.

Due to low iron availability under environmental conditions, many microorganisms excrete iron-chelating agents (siderophores) to cover their iron demands. A novel screening approach for the detection of siderophores using liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry was developed to study the production of extracellular siderophores of 10 wild-type Trichoderma strains. For annotation of siderophores, an in-house library comprising 422 known microbial siderophores was established.

The seven-transmembrane receptor Gpr1 governs processes relevant for the antagonistic interaction of Trichoderma atroviride with its host.

Mycoparasitic Trichoderma species are applied as biocontrol agents in agriculture to guard plants against fungal diseases. During mycoparasitism, Trichoderma directly interacts with phytopathogenic fungi, preceded by a specific recognition of the host and resulting in its disarming and killing. In various fungal pathogens, including mycoparasites, signalling via heterotrimeric G proteins plays a major role in regulating pathogenicity-related functions.

Trichoderma G protein-coupled receptors: functional characterisation of a cAMP receptor-like protein from Trichoderma atroviride.

Galpha subunits act to regulate vegetative growth, conidiation, and the mycoparasitic response in Trichoderma atroviride. To extend our knowledge on G protein signalling, we analysed G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). As the genome sequence of T.