Antifungal activity of a novel endochitinase gene (chit36) from Trichoderma harzianum Rifai TM

Ada Viterbo*, Shoshan Haran, Dana Friesem, Ofir Ramot, Ilan Chet

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

120 Scopus citations

Abstract

A novel 36-kDa endochitinase named chit36 has been isolated and characterized from Trichoderma harzianum Rifai TM. Partial amino acid sequences from the purified protein were used to clone the fungal cDNA, based on polymerase chain reaction with degenerate primers. The complete open reading frame encodes a 344-amino acid protein which shows 84% similarity to a putative chitinase from Streptomyces coelicolor. Chit36 was overexpressed under the pki1 constitutive promoter from Trichoderma reesei via biolistic transformation of T. harzianum TM. Stable transformants showed expression and endochitinase activity of chit36 in glucose-rich medium. Culture filtrates containing secreted CHIT36 as the sole chitinolytic enzyme completely inhibited the germination of Botrytis cinerea conidia. Growth of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. melonis and Sclerotium rolfsii were significantly inhibited on agar plates on which the Trichoderma transformants had previously been grown.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)169-174
Number of pages6
JournalFEMS Microbiology Letters
Volume200
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 25 Jun 2001

Keywords

  • Biological control
  • Endochitinase
  • Filamentous fungus
  • Mycoparasitism
  • Trichoderma harzianum

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