Trichoderma brevicompactum has been isolated from soil and plants in North, Central and South America, as well as in Africa and Asia, and has also been reported as an endophyte in garlic. Strains of T. brevicompactum can inhibit the growth of some plant pathogenic fungi and can modulate the response of plants to drought stress. As a result, some T. brevicompactum strains are considered to have potential in biocontrol of fungal diseases of crop plants. DNA-sequence-based phylogenetic analyses have placed T. brevicompactum in the Brevicompactum clade of Trichoderma. Some members of this clade are unusual among Trichoderma species in that they produce trichothecenes, a family of terpenoid toxins. Although over 150 trichothecene analogs have been described from species of at least 10 fungal genera, members of the Brevicompactum clade have been reported to produce only two analogs, trichodermin and harzianum A, as well as their biosynthetic intermediates. It is likely that these trichothecenes contribute to antifungal activity of at least some members of the Brevicompactum clade, including T. brevicompactum. Three loci with trichothecene biosynthetic (tri) genes have been identified in T. brevicompactum strain IBT 40841, and the roles of some of the genes in trichothecene biosynthesis have been confirmed by functional analysis. In addition to trichothecenes, T. brevicompactum has also been reported to produce multiple antimicrobial polypeptides (e.g., alamethicins, trichocryptins and trichobrevins).
The genome sequence and gene models of Trichoderma brevicompactum IBT40841 were not determined by the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), but were downloaded from NCBI on Mar 29, 2019 and annotation provided by the authors. In order to allow comparative analyses with other fungal genomes sequenced by the JGI, a copy of this genome is incorporated into Mycocosm. JGI tools were used to automatically annotate predicted proteins. Please note that this copy of the genome is not maintained by NCBI and is therefore not automatically updated.
Genome Reference(s)
Proctor RH, McCormick SP, Kim HS, Cardoza RE, Stanley AM, Lindo L, Kelly A, Brown DW, Lee T, Vaughan MM, Alexander NJ, Busman M, Gutiérrez S
Evolution of structural diversity of trichothecenes, a family of toxins produced by plant pathogenic and entomopathogenic fungi.
PLoS Pathog. 2018 Apr;14(4):e1006946. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1006946