COMPARATIVE GROWTH OF TRICHODERMA STRAINS IN DIFFERENT NUTRITIONAL SOURCES, USING BIOSCREEN C AUTOMATED SYSTEM

Trichoderma is one of the fungi genera that produce important metabolites for industry. The growth of these organisms is a consequence of the nutritional sources used as also of the physical conditions employed to cultivate them. In this work, the automated Bioscreen C system was used to evaluate the influence of different nutritional sources on the growth of Trichoderma strains (T. hamatum, T. harzianum, T. viride, and T. longibrachiatum) isolated from the soil in the Jureia-Itatins Ecological Station (JIES), Sao Paulo State Brazil. The cultures were grown in liquid culture media containing different carbon- (2%; w/v) and nitrogen (1%; w/v) sources at 28 C, pH 6.5, and agitated at 150 rpm for 72 h. The results showed, as expected, that glucose is superior to sucrose as a growth-stimulating carbon source in the Trichoderma strains studied, while yeast extract and tryptone were good growth-stimulating nitrogen sources in the cultivation of T. hamatum and T. harzianum.