The significance of volatile antifungal metabolites produced by trichomerma harzianum biotype Th4, in green-mould disease of commercial mushroom crops /

The aggressive mushroom competitor, Trichoderma harzianum biotype Th4, produces volatile antifungal secondary metabolites both in culture and during the disease cycle in compost. Th4 cultures produced one such compound only when cultured in the presence of Agaricus bisporus mycelium or liquid medium made from compost colonised with A. bisporus. This compound has TLC and UVabsorption and characteristics indicating that it belongs to a class of pyrone antibiotics characterised from other T. harzianum biotypes. UV absorption spectra indicated this compound was not 6-pentyl-2H-pyran-one (6PAP), the volatile antifungal metabolite widely described in Th1. Furthermore, this compound was not produced by Th1 under any culture conditions. Mycelial growth of A. bisporus, Botrytis cinerea and Sclerotium cepivorum was inhibited in the presence of this compound through volatility , diffusion and direct application. This indicates that Th4 produces novel, volatile, antifungal metabolites in the presence of A. bisporus that are likely involved in green mould disease of mushroom crops.

An unusual postharvest spotting disease of the comercial mushroom, Agaricus bisporus, caused by a novel pathovar of Pseudomonas tolaasii

An unusual postharvest spotting disease of the commercial mushroom, Agaricus bisporus, which was observed on a commercial mushroom farm in Ontario, was found to be caused by a novel pathovar of Pseudomonas tolaasii. Isolations from the discoloured lesions, on the mushroom pilei, revealed the presence of several different bacterial and fungal genera. The most frequently isolated genus being Pseudomonas bacteria. The most frequently isolated fungal genus was Penicillium. Of the bacteria and fungi assayed for pathogenicity to mushrooms, only Pseudomonas tolaasii was able to reproduce the postharvest spotting symptom. This symptom was typically reproduced 1 to 7 days postharvest, when mushroom pilei were inoculated with 101 to 105 cfu. Of the fungi tested for pathogenicity only a Penicillium sp. and Verticillium fungicola were shown to be pathogenic, however, neither produced the postharvest spotting symptom. The Pseudomonas tolaasii strain isolated from the postharvest lesions differed from a type culture (Pseudomonas tolaasii ATCC 33618) in the symptoms it produced on Agaricus bisporus pilei under the same conditions and at the same inoculum concentration. It was therefore designated a pathovar. This strain also differed from the type culture in its cellular protein profile. Neither the type culture, nor the mushroom pathogen was found to contain plasmid DNA. The presence of plasmid DNA is therefore not responsible for the difference in pathogenicity between the two strains.