Exploration and Inhibition Test of Penicillium sp. In Vitro by Trichoderma

Penicillium is an entomopathogenic fungus which can be used as a bio-bactericidal. Its existence in nature can be found together with other microbes including Trichoderma, a biocontrol agent that has the ability to damage the cell walls of other fungi due to the activity of the extracellular enzyme chitinase it produces. This study aims to obtain potential isolates of Penicillium biocontrol agents from vegetable growing fields and to determine their response to inhibition by Trichoderma esperellum in vitro. On PDA-chloramphenicol media, a suspension of 10 4 dilution was inoculated containing sample soil from vegetable crops to be isolated and purified and identified as to its species. The entomopathogenic isolates obtained were grown together with T. esperellum in dual culture and also grown in monoculture as a comparison. The isolation results obtained Penicillium sp. Pc-02. The in vitro test results showed that Trichoderma isolates could inhibit Penicillium sp. by 35.5 ± 1.9% and supported the growth of this entomopagen fungus by 15.7% at 24 and 72 hours after inoculation, respectively.