Some Nutritional Factors Affecting Production of Biomass and Antifungal Metabolites of Coniothyrium minitans

The ability of the mycoparasite Coniothyrium minitans to utilize a range of C and N sources and vitamins for growth, pycnidial formation and antifungal metabolite production was examined using a defined liquid medium. Coniothyrium minitans was able to use all the C sources tested, with the exception of D -xylose, and all the N sources tested, although growth was generally better on organic N sources rather than NO 3 -N. Increasing C:N ratios from 9:1-202:1 with N constant (2.0 g L -l L -alanine) resulted in steadily increasing yields, whereas increasing C:N ratios with C constant (40.0 g L -l D -glucose) gradually decreased yield. Addition of thiamine to the glucose-alanine basal medium resulted in the greatest increase in growth but biomass was still less than that achieved using an undefined molasses-yeast medium. Pycnidial production was generally low or failed to occur in the basal medium + C + N sources in the absence of vitamins, but addition of thiamine consistently led to abundant pycnidial formation. Molasses-yeast static culture provided greater biomass and conidial yields than molasses-yeast shaken culture. Incorporation of C. minitans culture medium into potato dextrose broth (10% v/v) resulted in consistent reduction in growth of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum irrespective of C, N or vitamin content of the basal medium or whether molasses-yeast medium was used. This is the first report of consistent production of antifungal metabolites by C. minitans .