Biotechnological applicationsof Trichoderma species for environmental and food security

Abstract

This chapter reviews diverse biotechnological applications of Trichoderma species as a biofungicide for plant disease control, biofertilizer for plant growth promotory effects resulting in a high yield and productivity ensuring food security, along with environmental security by reducing the use of hazardous agrochemicals, production of industrially important chemicals, and having a potential for bioremediation for environmental cleanup activities. Use of chemical pesticide is one of the best strategies applied in intensive conventional agriculture for the control of pest and achieving high yields. However, pesticides are widely known for their adverse impacts on human health, and environmental challenges related to pesticides are a broad spectrum of toxicity affecting the biodiversity, persistence issues affecting food chain, residues in food chain, biomagnification, and acute and chronic effects on humans. Among beneficial microorganisms, Trichoderma species have attracted the attention because of their multipronged beneficial actions for plants in agriculture for their biocontrol potential, for plant growth promotion, for biostimulation of defense compounds in various crops, as well as for the production of important enzymes and drugs in industrial sector. Trichoderma species as a successful biocontrol agent employ complex mechanisms, i.e., competition, mycoparasitism, antibiosis, and induced systemic resistance against various phytopathogenic organisms. Several Trichoderma-based formulations are commercially available across the globe. Apart from the successful use of Trichoderma species as biocontrol agents (BCA) in agriculture, it also has ample potential for various industrial applications such as in paper and pulp industry, pharmaceutical industry, aromatic industry, and food and beverage industry. Intensive research is needed to develop Trichoderma-based formulations having prolonged shelf life, which is a constraint in the current scenario. Diverse biotechnological applications of Trichoderma species ensure food as well as environmental security direly needed for supporting life on this planet.