Screening of Trichoderma harzianum mutants tolerant to carbendazim and UV-light

After comparison of Trichoderma population density and test of colonization ability in rhizospheres were conducted. Auxotrophic mutants of T. harzianum tolerant to carbendazim and UV-light were obtained by UV-light mutagenesis and carbendazim stress on PDA medium and a basis medium with hot pepper root exudation by adding the fungicide. The results showed: all four different isolates of Trichoderma had certain colonization ability in rhizosphere with the characteristic of growing as roots and distributing many more around root tips. The ability, however, was different for the 4 isolates, showing the wild isolates colonized weakly in rhizosphere. Around 5% spores alive and mutants could be obtained after the isolates were irradiated under a 20W UV-light at 25 cm distance for 5 min. The mutants tolerant to carbendazim were screened out by adding the fungicide into PDA medium, which increased resistance to the fungicide 100 times higher than their original isolates and showed auxotrophic. Three mutants,G7n,G20n and G5n, grew very well on PDA and a basic medium with hot pepper root exudation. Therefore, these mutants could be used as the isolates with good colonization ability for further research.