Functional Characterization of TvCyt2, a Member of the p450 Monooxygenases From Trichoderma virens Relevant During the Association With Plants and Mycoparasitism

Secondary metabolites are crucial for the establishment of interactions between plants and microbes, as in the case of Trichoderma-plant interactions. In the biosynthetic pathway of secondary metabolites, specific enzymes participate in the formation of hydroxyl and epoxy groups, belonging to the p450 monooxygenases family. Here, we show that the product of the gene TvCyt2 from Trichoderma virens encodes a new protein homologous to the cytochrome p450, which is down-regulated at the beginning of Trichoderma-Arabidopsis interaction. To investigate its role in the interactions established by Trichoderma spp., we analyzed the metabolic profile obtained from the overexpressing (OETvCyt2) and null mutant (Delta tvcyt2) strains, observing that the OETvCyt2 strains produce a higher concentration of some metabolites than the wild-type (WT) strain. Dtvcyt2 strains showed a decreased antagonistic activity against Rhizoctonia solani in antibiosis assays. Arabidopsis plants cocultivated with the OETvCyt2 strains showed stronger induction of systemic acquired resistance than plants cocultivated with the WT strain, as well as increases in biomass and fitness. Our data suggest that the product of the TvCyt2 gene is involved in secondary metabolite biosynthesis, which can increase antagonistic activity with phytopathogenic fungi and the capacity to promote plant growth.