BIOGEOGRAPHY AND PHENOTYPIC VARIATION IN TRICHODERMA SECT LONGIBRACHIATUM AND ASSOCIATED HYPOCREA SPECIES

Random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD), using both fingerprint ing (M13, [GTG](5), [GACA](4)) and random [V5] primers; has been used to analyse 145 isolates characteristic of Trichoderma sect. Longibrach iatum and Hypocrea species with anamorphs referable to that section, a nd to identify strains with named species of sect. Langibrachiatum. To this end, ex-type strains of T. longibrachiatum, T. pseudokoningii, T . citrinoviride, T. parceramosum and T., resei were analysed, and the similarity coefficients of RAPD characters used as a criterion for the alignment of strains to individual species. The ex-type strains of T. saturnisporum and T. ghanense exhibited the same interspecific simila rity index as the other ex-type strains of Trichoderma sect. Longibrac hiatum, and clustered well within it and were therefore included into this section. 103 isolates were identified as members of Trichoderma s ect. Longibrachiatum and further investigated. Most of the anamorphic isolates could be aligned with T. citrinaviride or T. longibrachiatum, whereas only a few strains of T. saturnisporum and T. parceramosum we re found. No naturally occurring anamorphs with homology to the ex-typ e strains of T. reesei and T. pseudokoningii were found. While T. long ibrachiatum and T. citrinoviride overlapped through much of their geog raphic ranges, the former was, present in Africa and India but not in southeast Asia, while the reverse was true of the latter. The African strains of T. longibrachiatum were equally distant from the ex-type st rains of T. longibrachiatum, T. parceramosum and T. saturnisporum. The type strain of T. ghanense was identified as belonging to this group. T. pseudokoningii, the anamorph of Hypocrea schweinilzii, was found e xclusively in eastern Australia and New Zealand. Attempts to identify potential teleomorphs of the other anamorphs revealed another subgroup of H. schweinilzii, occurring in temperate climates in Europe and U.S .A., as homologous to T. citrinoviride. No Hypocrea strains could be i dentified as teleomorphs of T. longibrachiatum, T. parceramosum or T. saturnisporum.