Komal Chenthamara

• Doctor of Engineering
• Research Assistant at TU Wien

Unlike most other fungi, molds of the genus Trichoderma (Hypocreales, Ascomycota) are aggressive parasites of other fungi and efficient decomposers of plant biomass. Although nutritional shifts are common among hypocrealean fungi, there are no examples of such broad substrate versatility as that observed in Trichoderma. A phylogenomic analysis of 2...

Interfungal interactions are common in both the ancient fungal lineages and in the most evolutionary derived “high” fungi. In this chapter, we focus on the most recent reports on genome-wide investigations of mycotrophic fungi. We reveal unique features that are present in intracellular mycoparasitic Cryptomycota and outline similar and apparently...

Significance Many organisms are specialists living within a narrow range of conditions. Pathogens are often adapted to efficiently exploit only a few hosts species, or sometimes, only some genotypes within a species. The genomes of such parasites are predicted to maintain genes critical for host utilization and to lose genes no longer necessary out...

Hydrophobins are small secreted cysteine-rich proteins exclusively found in fungi. They are able to self-assemble in single molecular layers at hydrophobic-hydrophilic interfaces and can therefore be directly involved in establishment of fungi in their habitat. The genomes of filamentous mycotrophic fungi Trichoderma encode a rich diversity of hydr...

Similar to mycorrhizal mutualists, the rhizospheric and endophytic fungi are also considered to act as active regulators of host fitness (e.g., nutrition and stress tolerance). Despite considerable work in selected model systems, it is generally poorly understood how plant-associated fungi are structured in habitats with extreme conditions and to w...

Before the introduction of molecular techniques, the taxonomy of Trichoderma consisted of several dozen species defined based on their morphology, biogeography, and ecophysiology. However, the last two decades have resulted in the rapid expansion of species diversity in the genus. Currently, the genus Trichoderma has at least 469 species names, amo...

Mycoparasitism of Trichoderma (Hypocreales, Ascomycota) on plant pathogenic fungi is used for the biological control of such pests. To develop next-generation technology-driven Trichoderma-based products, recent studies have addressed the molecular mechanisms of Trichoderma mycoparasitism. In this chapter, we review the studies of functional geneti...

Higher fungi can rapidly produce large numbers of spores suitable for aerial dispersal. The efficiency of the dispersal and spore resilience to abiotic stresses correlate with their hydrophobicity provided by the unique amphiphilic and superior surface-active proteins–hydrophobins (HFBs)–that self-assemble at hydrophobic/hydrophilic interfaces and...

The secretomes of filamentous fungi contain a diversity of small secreted cysteine-rich proteins (SSCPs) that have a variety of properties ranging from toxicity to surface activity. Some SSCPs are recognized by other organisms as indicators of fungal presence, but their function in fungi is not fully understood. We detected a new family of fungal s...

Fungi comprise one of the most diverse groups of eukaryotes with many cryptic species that are difficult to identify. In this chapter, we detail a protocol for the molecular identification of the most industrially relevant species of Trichoderma ,T. reesei. We first describe how a single spore culture should be isolated and used for the sequencing of...

Fungi comprise one of the most diverse groups of eukaryotes with many cryptic species that are difficult to identify. In this chapter, we detail a protocol for the molecular identification of the most industrially relevant species of Trichoderma—T. reesei. We first describe how a single spore culture should be isolated and used for the sequencing o...

The filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei (Hypocreales, Ascomycota) is an efficient industrial cell factory for the production of cellulolytic enzymes used for biofuel and other applications. Therefore, researches addressing T. reesei are relatively advanced compared to other Trichoderma spp. because of the significant bulk of available knowledge,...

Fungi can rapidly produce large amounts of spores suitable for aerial dispersal. The hydrophobicity of spores is provided by the unique amphiphilic and superior surface-active proteins - hydrophobins (HFBs) - that self-assemble at hydrophobic/hydrophilic interfaces and thus change surface properties. Using the HFB-enriched mold Trichoderma and the...

Fungal evolutionary biology is impeded by the scarcity of fossils, irregular life cycles, immortality, and frequent asexual reproduction. Simple and diminutive bodies of fungi develop inside a substrate and have exceptional metabolic and ecological plasticity, which hinders species delimitation. However, the unique fungal traits can shed light on e...

Cerato-platanins (CPs) are surface-active small proteins abundantly secreted by filamentous fungi. Consequently, immune systems of plants and other organisms recognize CPs and activate defense mechanisms. Some CPs are toxic to plants and act as virulence factors in plant-pathogenic fungi. Our analysis, however, demonstrates that the interactions wi...

(1) Background: Mechanisms of cellular and molecular adaptation of fungi to salinity have been commonly drawn from halotolerant strains and few studies in basidiomycete fungi. These studies have been conducted in settings where cells are subjected to stress, either hypo- or hyperosmotic, which can be a confounding factor in describing physiological...

Trichoderma species are abundant in different agricultural habitats, but some representatives of this genus, mainly clade Longibrachiatum members are also emerging as causative agents of various human diseases with even fatal outcome. Strains of these species frequently show resistance to commonly used azole antifungals. Based on previous data it i...

Background: The growing importance of the ubiquitous fungal genus Trichoderma (Hypocreales, Ascomycota) requires understanding of its biology and evolution. Many Trichoderma species are used as biofertilizers and biofungicides and T. reesei is the model organism for industrial production of cellulolytic enzymes. In addition, some highly opportunis...

When resources are limited, the hypocrealean fungus Trichoderma guizhouense can overgrow another hypocrealean fungus Fusarium oxysporum, cause sporadic cell death and arrest growth. A transcriptomic analysis of this interaction shows that T. guizhouense undergoes a succession of metabolic stresses while F. oxysporum responded relatively neutrally b...

Composition and evolution of pcwdCAZome of Trichoderma and related fungi. A. NCBI Accession numbers of genes composing the pcwdCAZome of Trichoderma and regulatory proteins analyzed in this study. B. Distribution of pcwdCAZymes in GH families in Hypocreales. C: Parameters of phylogenetic analyses of individual proteins from Trichoderma pcwdCAZome....

Additional organisms used in this study. (XLSX)

Phylogenetic trees of Trichoderma plant cell wall-degrading carbohydrate active enzymes and regulatory proteins. (PDF)

Results of statistical tests of the LGT hypothesis. A. The transfer costs for NOTUNG and comparison to LGT events predicted by T-REX. B: Results of the NOTUNG analysis of pcwdCAZome and relevant regulatory proteins. C. Summary on the evolutionary origin of pcwdCAZome of Trichoderma inferred in this study. D. Functional annotations of core genome Tr...

Growth of Trichoderma spp., Escovopsis weberi and Pestalotiopsis fici on natural substrates resembling polymers in the fungal and plant cell walls. Strains were evaluated after 10 days of incubation at 28°C in darkness. Yellow, green and white shape outlines correspond to good, weak and no growth, respectively. Data are representatives of four sepa...

Multiple sequence alignment used for the multilocus phylogeny of Ascomycota fungi. (AA)

Accession numbers of genes used for the multilocus phylogeny of Ascomycota fungi. (XLSX)

Mycoparasitism of Trichoderma. A. Allomycoparasitism of Trichoderma spp. and E. weberi on Lentinula edodes. B: Allomycoparasitism of Trichoderma and E. weberi on Leucoagaricus gongylophorus. The dashed lines indicate growth of the host fungus as deduced from back sides of the plates. C: Set up for the microscopic investigation of Trichoderma (right...

Ecological terminology used in this study to describe types of nutrition found in Hypocreales fungi. (PDF)

Properties of fungal genomes that were used in this study. (XLSX)

Materials describing phylogenomic analysis of Hypocreales based on 100 orthologous proteins. A. Annotations of 100 orthologous proteins used in phylogenomic analysis and results of the neutrality tests. B. Protein accession numbers for 23 genomes. (XLSX)

Chromosomal location of individual genes from pcwdCAZome of T. reesei. (XLSX)

Bayesian consensus phylograms for individual genetic regions (LSU, SSU, and tef1) showing the relationships between our isolates and currently described pleosporalean fungi. The color of branch corresponded to the posterior probabilities percentage.

Fungal biomass production (mean ± standard error) of 27 tested isolates under four different N sources including ammonium (NH4+), nitrate (NO3-), a mixture of five amino acids and BSA. Different letters above columns indicated the significant differences (multiple t-tests comparison, P < 0.05).

The filamentous fungus Trichoderma parareesei is the asexually reproducing ancestor of Trichoderma reesei, the holomorphic industrial producer of cellulase and hemicellulase. Here, we present the genome sequence of the T. parareesei type strain CBS 125925, which contains genes for 9,318 proteins.

The filamentous fungus Trichoderma parareesei is the asexually reproducing ancestor of Trichoderma reesei, the holomorphic industrial producer of cellulase and hemicellulase. Here, we present the genome sequence of the T. parareesei type strain CBS 125925, which contains genes for 9,318 proteins.