Mycoparasitic Trichoderma strains secrete a complex set of hydrolytic enzymes under conditions related to antagonism. Several proteins with proteolytic activity were detected in culture filtrates from T. harzianum CECT 2413 grown in fungal cell walls or chitin and the protein responsible for the main activity (PRA1) was purified to homogeneity. The enzyme was monomeric, its estimated molecular mass was 28 kDa (SDS-PAGE), and its isoelectric point 4.7–4.9. The substrate specificity and inhibition profile of the enzyme correspond to a serine-protease with trypsin activity. Synthetic oligonucleotide primers based on N-terminal and internal sequences of the protein were designed to clone a full cDNA corresponding to PRA1. The protein sequence showed <43% identity to mammal trypsins and 47–57% to other fungal trypsin-like proteins described thus far. Northern analysis indicated that PRA1 is induced by conditions simulating antagonism, is subject to nitrogen and carbon derepression, and is affected by pH in the culture media. The number of hatched eggs of the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita was significantly reduced after incubation with pure PRA1 preparations. This nematicidal effect was improved using fungal culture filtrates, suggesting that PRA1 has additive or synergistic effects with other proteins produced during the antagonistic activity of T. harzianum CECT 2413. A role for PRA1 in the protection of plants against pests and pathogens provided by T. harzianum CECT 2413 is proposed.

Background: It has recently been shown that the Trichoderma fungal species used for biocontrol of plant diseases are capable of interacting with plant roots directly, behaving as symbiotic microorganisms. With a view to providing further information at transcriptomic level about the early response of Trichoderma to a host plant, we developed a high-density oligonucleotide (HDO) microarray encompassing 14,081 Expressed Sequence Tag (EST)-based transcripts from eight Trichoderma spp. and 9,121 genome-derived transcripts of T. reesei, and we have used this microarray to examine the gene expression of T. harzianum either alone or in the presence of tomato plants, chitin, or glucose. Results: Global microarray analysis revealed 1,617 probe sets showing differential expression in T. harzianum mycelia under at least one of the culture conditions tested as compared with one another. Hierarchical clustering and heat map representation showed that the expression patterns obtained in glucose medium clustered separately from the expression patterns observed in the presence of tomato plants and chitin. Annotations using the Blast2GO suite identified 85 of the 257 transcripts whose probe sets afforded up-regulated expression in response to tomato plants. Some of these transcripts were predicted to encode proteins related to Trichoderma-host (fungus or plant) associations, such as Sm1/Elp1 protein, proteases P6281 and PRA1, enchochitinase CHIT42, or QID74 protein, although previously uncharacterized genes were also identified, including those responsible for the possible biosynthesis of nitric oxide, xenobiotic detoxification, mycelium development, or those related to the formation of infection structures in plant tissues. Conclusion: The effectiveness of the Trichoderma HDO microarray to detect different gene responses under different growth conditions in the fungus T. harzianum strongly indicates that this tool should be useful for further assays that include different stages of plant colonization, as well as for expression studies in other Trichoderma spp. represented on it. Using this microarray, we have been able to define a number of genes probably involved in the transcriptional response of T. harzianum within the first hours of contact with tomato plant roots, which may provide new insights into the mechanisms and roles of this fungus in the Trichoderma-plant interaction.