Trichoderma viride, Pers.

Mastan, Anthati, Rane, Digeshwar, Dastager, Syed G. & Babu, C. S. Vivek, 2021, Molecular insights of fungal endophyte co-inoculation with Trichoderma viride for the augmentation of forskolin biosynthesis in Coleus forskohlii, Phytochemistry (112654) 184, pp. 1-10 : 2

2.2. Synergistic effect of fungal endophytes and T. viride on plant growth of C. forskohlii

Co-inoculation of RF 1, SF1, or SF2 fungal endophyte with T. viride modulates C. forskohlii plant growth. Significant enhancement in branch number and plant height was noticed in both individual (endophyte or T. viride ) and co-inoculated treatments (endophyte +TV1) compared to the uninoculated control plants. However, more enhancements in plant height and branch numbers were noticed in co-inoculations compared to individual treatments ( Fig. S2 ). C. forskohlii treated with RF 1, SF1, SF2, and TV1 showed 29–54% and 21–33% more branch number and height, respectively, compared to control plants. The plants co-inoculated with RF 1+TV1, SF1+TV1, and SF2+TV1 resulted in significant improvement of plant height (54, 41, and 52%, respectively) and number of branches (75, 67, and 70%, respectively) compared to control plants ( Fig. 2a and b ). Fresh and dry mass of root and shoot were significantly higher in co-inoculated plants compared to individual treatments and control plants. However, individual treatments showed more fresh and dry mass of root and shoot compared to control plants. The plants inoculated with RF 1+TV1, SF1+TV1, and SF2+TV1 resulted in significant increase of fresh shoot weight at 100, 70, and 97%, fresh root weight at 73, 44, and 55%, dry shoot weight at 67, 32, and 56%, and dry root weight at 94, 53, and 69%, respectively compared to control plants. Similarly, treatment of C. forskohlii with RF 1, SF2, and TV1 resulted in significant enhancement of root length (20, 27, and 37%, respectively) and number of tuberous roots (37, 27, 24, and 20%, respectively) compared to control plants ( Fig. 2c–f ). However, SF1 did not significantly enhance root length (7%). The plants treated with a consortium of RF 1+TV1, SF1+TV1, or SF2+TV1 resulted in significant increment of root length (41, 16, or 37%, respectively) and number of tuberous roots (74, 35, or 55%, respectively) compared to control plants ( Fig. 2g and h ). Overall, the effect of endophytes and TV 1 in different combinations (individual and co-inoculation) revealed that the inoculation of RF 1+TV1 combination showed significant improvement in all growth measurements, followed by combination of SF2+TV1 compared to other treatments and control plants.

Figures

Fig. 2. Effect of endophytes and TV1 colonization on C. forskohlii. The beneficial effects of various treatments on plant height, branch number and total biomass. The graphical bar represents the effect of total of seven treatments, RF1, SF1, SF2, TV1, RF1+TV1, SF1+TV1, and SF2+TV2 and one control. (a) Plant height and (b) Number of branches. The fresh weights of shoots and roots (c) and dry weights of shoots and roots (d) were analyzed. The root length and number of tuberous roots per plant also recorded from 4 biological replicates. Error bars represents the standard deviation of mean (SD). Asterisks indicate a significant difference between control and endophyte treatments (*p <0.05, **p <0.01).