Abstract:
Plant pathogens cause severe losses or damage to crops worldwide and thereby
significantly reduce the quality and quantity of agricultural commodities. World
tendencies are shifting towards reducing the usage of chemically synthesized
pesticides, while various biocontrol methods, strategies and approaches are being
used in plant disease management. Fungal antagonists play a significant role in
controlling plant pathogens and diseases and they are used as Biocontrol Agents
(BCAs) throughout the world. This review provides a comprehensive list of fungal BCAs
used against fungal plant pathogens according to modern taxonomic concepts, and
clarifies their phylogenetic relationships because thewrong names are frequently used in
the literature of biocontrol. Details of approximately 300 fungal antagonists belonging to
13 classes and 113 genera are listed together with the target pathogens and
corresponding plant diseases. Trichoderma is identified as the genus with greatest
potential comprising 25 biocontrol agents that have been used against a number of
plant fungal diseases. In addition to Trichoderma, nine genera are recognized as
significant comprising five or more known antagonistic species, namely, Alternaria,
Aspergillus, Candida, Fusarium, Penicillium, Pichia, Pythium, Talaromyces, and
Verticillium. A phylogenetic analysis based on partial sequences of the 28S nrRNA gene
(LSU) of fungal antagonists was performed to establish their phylogenetic relationships.
