Morpho-molecular characterization of Clonostachys rosea and deciphering its biomolecules untangles the anti-fungal action against Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici

Clonostachys rosea, a promising mycoparasite, has great biological control abilities against a variety of fungal plant diseases, insects and nematode pests. In the present study, three isolates of Clonostachys rosea were isolated from carrot, undisturbed forest and black gram rhizosphere soils respectively, out of 50 soil samples taken from different field and horticultural crops. Out of 15 onion plant samples from various locations, one isolate of C. rosea was isolated from root samples of onion. Two isolates of C. rosea from mycoparasitized sclerotia on cabbage head rot infected sample and naturally deceased whitefly in cotton was isolated respectively. They were morphologically and molecularly confirmed as C. rosea based on the fungal taxonomical keys and PCR amplification with ITS, translation elongation factor 1 alpha (TEF-1 alpha), species specific primer sets respectively. The antagonistic ability of C. rosea against Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici (Fol) has been shown using confrontation assay. Molecular docking of biomolecules of C. rosea using AutoDock vina module in PyRx 0.8 software reported dl-Glyceraldehyde dimer and 2(3H)-Furanone, dihydro-4-hydroxy as best hits with highest binding energy in the range of - 7.1 to -5.6 kcal/mol against target protein Global transcription regulator sge1 (SIX Gene Expression 1) of Fol. We also observed comparatively less binding energy for commercially available fungicide on docking against the target protein of Fol.