Determining the biocontrol capacities of spp. originating from Turkey on by transcriptional and antagonistic analyses.

In this study aiming to investigate potential fungal biocontrol agents for , several isolates of spp. were evaluated for their antagonistic effects by means of transcriptional analyses. At first, 21 monosporic spp. isolates were obtained from natural wood debris and wood area soils in Manisa, Turkey. spp. Isolates were identified as belonging to four different species (, and ) by sequencing. Then, the linear growth rate (LGR) of each species was calculated and determined to be in a range between 13.22 ± 0.71 mm/day ( TR2) and 25.06 ± 1.45 mm/day ( K30). Inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) genotyping validated the sequencing results by presenting two sub-clusters in the dendrogram. We determined the genetically most similar (TR1 & TR2; 97.77%) and dissimilar (K9 & K17; 40.40%) individuals belonging to the same and different species, respectively. Dual sandwich culture tests (which are useful for antagonism studies) revealed that K21 (the least suppressive) and K26 (the most suppressive) isolates suppressed with growth rates of 3% and 46%, respectively. Expressions of genes previously associated with mycoparasitism-plant protection-secondary metabolism (, , and ) were tested by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) in both those isolates. While there were no significant differences (p>0.05) in expression that were present in the K21 isolate, those three genes were upregulated with fold change values of 2.69 ± 0.26 (p<0.001), 2.23 ± 0.16 (p<0.001), and 5.38 ± 2.01 (p<0.05) in K26, meaning that the presence of significant alteration in the physiological processes of the fungus. Also, its mycoparasitism potential was tested on L. cv Basribey , which was infected with the FcUK99 strain. Results of the trials, including specific plant growth parameters (weight or length of plantlets), confirmed the mycoparasitic potential of the isolate. It can be concluded that (i) , , and genes could be approved as reliable markers for evaluation of BCA capacities of spp. and (ii) the K26 strain can be suggested as a promising candidate for combating in diseases following the necessary procedures to ensure it is non-hazardous and safe.