Biological Management of Banana Fusarium Wilt Caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense Tropical Race 4 Using Antagonistic Fungal Isolate CSR-T-3 ( Trichoderma reesei )

wilt in bananas is one of the most devastating diseases that poses a serious threat to the banana industry globally. With no effective control measures available to date, biological control has been explored to restrict the spread and manage the outbreak. We studied the effective biological control potential of different spp. in the management of f. sp. tropical race 4 (Foc TR4). Expression of the defense related genes and metabolites in banana plants inoculated with Foc TR4 and treated with effective sp interactions were also studied. The growth inhibition of Foc TR4 by isolate CSR-T-3 was 85.19% indicating a higher antagonistic potential than other isolates used in the study. Further, in assays, the banana plants treated with the isolate CSR-T-3 had a significant reduction in the disease severity index (0.75) and also had increased phenological indices with respect to Foc TR4 treated plants. Enhanced activity of defense enzymes, such as β-1, 3-glucanase, peroxidase, chitinase, polyphenol oxidase, and phenylalanine ammonia lyase with higher phenol contents were found in the isolate CSR-T-3 treated banana plants challenge-inoculated with Foc TR4. Fusarium toxins, such as fusaristatin A, fusarin C, chlamydosporal, and beauveric acid were identified by LC-MS in Foc TR4-infected banana plants while high intensity production of antifungal compounds, such as ß-caryophyllene, catechin-o-gallate, soyasapogenol rhamnosyl glucoronide, peptaibols, fenigycin, iturin C19, anthocyanin, and gallocatechin-o-gallate were detected in isolate CSR-T-3 treated plants previously inoculated with Foc TR4. Gene expression analysis indicated the upregulation of / , and genes in CSR-T-3 treatment. LC-MS and gene expression analysis could ascertain the upregulation of genes involved in mycoparasitism and the signal transduction pathway leading to secondary metabolite production under CSR-T-3 treatment. The plants in the field study showed a reduced disease severity index (1.14) with high phenological growth and yield indices when treated with isolate CSR-T-3 formulation. We report here an effective biocontrol-based management technological transformation from lab to the field for successful control of wilt disease caused by Foc TR4 in bananas.