Control of rice sheath blight with the endophytic fungus ZJUF0986 and its bioactive metabolite.

New endophytic fungaus Trichoderma taxi strain ZJUF0986,isolated from Taxus chinensis var.mairei,is of high antifungal activity against various phytopathogenic fungi.ZJUF0986 in dual cuture degraded Rhizoctonia solani hyphae directly when they contacted,through the mode of winding and attachment to pathogen mycelia.Antifungal metabolite produced by ZJUF0986 inhibited pathogen mycelium growth and sclerotia germination with EC50 1.08 μg/ml and 3.59 μg/ml,respectively.Pot trials in greenhouse,showed that antifungal metabolite of ZJUF0986 was effective in control of rice sheath blight.Its control efficacy at 80 μg/ml antifungal metabolite was equal to that of Jinggangmycin-A at 50 μg/ml.