Many fungal endophytes have the ability to promote plant growth, as well as increase the host plant’s tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses. Most endophytic species of Trichoderma are well known biocontrol agents and have been used to control diseases caused by phytopathogens of the genera Rhizoctonia, Fusarium, and Phytophthora. However, our recent research has isolated a strain of Trichoderma from sweetpotato storage roots purchased from a local farm, which was shown to develop root rot symptoms. Therefore, the objective of this project was to evaluate this isolate, especially for its potentially pathogenic nature. In the laboratory, the ITS region of the isolate was amplified, and gene sequencing placed it to T. atroviride with 99% homology. However, T. atroviride has never been identified as a disease-causing agent for sweetpotato in literature so far. Pathogenicity test was carried out accordingly, by inoculating this isolate onto healthy, symptomless sweetpotato storage roots. Two weeks post-inoculation, the storage roots were cut in half to reveal necrotic lesion development between 1.7 and 2.1cm in diameter based on three replications. The necrotic tissue was sampled and cultured on PDA, and the re-isolated fungal specimen was confirmed to be T. atroviride through gene sequencing. This result demonstrated that under environmental conditions conducive for pathogen development, this strain of T. atroviride is capable of causing root rot disease in sweetpotatoes. This finding is particularly significant as farmers typically store sweetpotatoes for an extended time, sometimes up to a year, which increases the possibilities for disease occurrence. Dual-culture assays are still ongoing to determine if this strain of T. atroviride could be a beneficial endophyte under different storage conditions, especially when other fungal endophytes are co-existing in the same storage root.
