Variability and Genetic Structure of a Natural Population of Trichoderma spp. Isolated from Different Substrates in Morocco

Ten species of Trichoderma antagonists have been collected from different ecosystems (forest soils, compost and strawberry plants) and characterized according to their molecular tools. Molecular characterization was performed by amplifying and analyzing the sequences of the internal transcribed separator coding 1 and 4 (ITS). Trichoderma isolates were identified as Trichoderma asperellum, more than 90% similarity, except the SDLA2 strain gave Trichoderma harzianum species (The isolate SDLA2 was closely related at the nucleotide level to the China’s isolate gi|748053410|gb|KM277992.1| Trichoderma harzianum, 100% of similarity). The dissimilarity matrix based on ITS analysis showed that the Trichoderma isolates: SELM4, SMAA6, SMAA8 and SDLA27 were the less dissimilar (1.3% to 1.6%), while the isolate SDLA2 with the others isolates, except with the isolate gi|748053410|gb|KM277992.1 (1.1%) are the most dissimilar (9.9% to 16.3%).