Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated transformation of ChiV gene to Trichoderma harzianum

As a soil-borne filamentous fungus, Trichoderma harzianum exhibits biological control properties because it parasitizes a large variety of phytopathogenic fungi. In this study, the vectors pBI121 and pCAMBIA1301 and cloning vector pUC18 were used to successfully construct expression vector pCA-GChiV for filamentous fungi transformation mediated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens.The ChiV gene was successfully transferred into the biocontrol fungus T. harzianum with an efficiency of 90-110 transformants per 10 ⁷ spores using A. tumefaciens-mediated transformation. Putative transformants were analyzed to test the transformation by the southern blot, and the expression of ChiV was detected by reverse transcription PCR. The transformants were co-cultured to assay antifungal activities with Rhizoctonia solani. The inhibition rates of the transformants and no ChiV gene transferred T. harzianum were 98.56% and 82.42%, respectively, on the fourth day.The results showed that the ChiV transformants had significantly higher inhibition activity.