Raízes de Musa spp. hospedam fungos endofíticos com potencial de controle de Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense.

Aiming to understand the role of root-associated endophytic fungi against Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc) we screened 25 non-commercial genotypes of Musa spp. from field collections in Brazil and Costa Rica. Analyses of Tefa-1? and/or ITS genome regions of the 150 isolates obtained revealed that most frequent genera were Trichoderma spp. and F. oxysporum. Fungi such as Gloeotinia temulenta and others isolates with no significant similarities to the database analysed are potentially new descriptions. Some genera were more frequent or uniquely found on certain genotypes, but endophyte-host specificity needs to be verified. Antagonism tests against Foc revealed that most Trichoderma isolates are better competitors than Foc in vitro. T. asperellum isolates showed the highest inhibition (> 80%) and parasitism (100%) levels. Some T. asperellum isolates were also able to parasite non-pathogenic F. oxysporum isolates even coming from the same host. Our results revealed that Musa spp. roots are hosts of a high diversity of culturable fungi including potential biocontrol agents against Foc, but also indicate complex in planta interactions among endophytes