ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Terrestrial Microbiology
This article is part of the Research TopicMicrobe-Environment Interaction Across Grassland Ecosystems: Soil Microbial Diversity, Plant-Microbe Interplay, and Ecosystem FunctionalityView all 8 articles
Trichoderma tlahuicanensis sp. nov. (Hypocreaceae), a novel mycoparasite of Fusarium oxysporum and Phytophthora capsici isolated from a traditional Mexican milpa
Provisionally accepted
- 1Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Morelos, Cuernavaca, Mexico
- 2Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Mexico
- 3Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico
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The genus Trichoderma encompasses cosmopolitan fungi with key ecological and biotechnological roles, including mycoparasitism, plant growth promotion, and abiotic stress tolerance. As the catalog of undescribed species continues to expand, the need for precise species delimitation is increasingly evident. In this work, we isolated strain BMH-0061 as a root endophyte of chili (Capsicum annuum) and assessed its phenotypic and antagonistic potential. This strain originated from Mexico's milpa agroecosystem, an underexplored reservoir of microbial diversity. The strain exhibited broad-spectrum mycoparasitism against phytopathogens, and tolerance to moderate abiotic stress. Morphological characterization, growth profiles, and multi-gene phylogenies suggested its placement within the Trichoderma genus but distinct from known species. To robustly evaluate its taxonomic status, we generated a near-complete telomere-to-telomere genome assembly (BUSCO completeness 99.08%). We assessed a battery of genomic coherence metrics, including ANI, AAI, POCP, and k-mer composition; notably, BMH-0061 shared ANI values ranging from 83.93% to 94.43% with its closest Trichoderma relatives. Integrative phylogenomic analyses, supported by Bayesian speciation models and clustering-based comparisons, consistently recovered BMH-0061 as an independent lineage. We formally describe this novel taxon as Trichoderma tlahuicanensis sp. nov., honoring the indigenous pre-Hispanic Tlahuica people of Morelos, Mexico. Our work illustrates how a phylophenetic framework -combining genomic, phylogenetic, genetic diversity, and evolutionary analyses-provides a powerful approach to species delimitation. This integrative strategy confirms the recognition of T. tlahuicanensis as a distinct species while offers a methodological pathway for peers involved in fungal systematics.
Keywords: Trichoderma, Mycoparasitism, plant growth promotion, Phylophenetic species concept, Bayesian speciationtest, Abiotic stress tolerance, Milpa agroecosystem
Received: 26 Sep 2025; Accepted: 11 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Iza-Arteaga, Lira-Ruan, Balcázar, Folch-Mallol and Sánchez-Reyes. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ayixon Sánchez-Reyes, ayixon.sanchez@mail.ibt.unam.mx
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