Phylogenetic analysis reveals that the ech42 gene reliably discriminates species in Trichoderma, indicating its viability as a complementary DNA barcode.
Key Points
To evaluate the endochitinase 42 kDa (ech42) protein-coding gene as a potential DNA barcode for species delimitation and phylogenetic reconstruction within the genus Trichoderma.
Sequenced and aligned an approximately 850 base-pair region of the ech42 gene from eight local isolates representing four Trichoderma species.
Performed phylogenetic tree reconstruction alongside physicochemical and three-dimensional structural analyses of the deduced amino acid sequences.
Phylogenetic analysis of the ech42 marker successfully resolved all four Trichoderma species with 100% bootstrap support.
Amino acid sequence lengths ranged from 278 to 283 residues across species, with Trichoderma virens displaying the most hydrophilic protein structure (GRAVY value of −0.303).