Phenotypic and molecular diagnosis of <i>Trichoderma</i> spp.  isolated from the local soil of Nineveh Governorate, Iraq

Trichoderma spp. is a common soil fungus that penetrates plant roots and engages with various microorganisms and plants. The present study aimed to determine the phylogenetic relationships of rhizosphere isolates of Trichoderma spp. obtained from the local soil in Mosul in the north of Iraq utilizing the sequence of the internal transcribed spacer-1 (ITS-1) region of the ribosomal DNA of eight Trichoderma spp.. Approximately 192 samples were collected between March and October 2023 from the rhizospheric soil of Potato )Solanum tuberosum), Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), Wheat (Triticum aestivum), Barley (Hordeum vulgare), Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus) and Citrus (Citrus limon (. Only 5.8% of the rhizosphere samples belonged to Trichoderma spp. The samples were identified based on morphological characteristics and molecular techniques. All the selected isolates amplified a similar band (660 bp). The nucleotide sequences were then analyzed, and a phylogenetic tree was constructed to compare the present isolates with the closest isolates submitted to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). Isolates were submitted to NCBI as new strains under the accession numbers: Trichoderma harzianum (PP968131), T. longibrachiatum (PP977534), T. harzianum (PP977576), T. longibrachiatum (PP989798), Trichoderma longibrachiatum (PP989800), T. longibrachiatum (PP989803), T. longibrachiatum (PP989804), and T. harzianum (PP989805). This study expands the NCBI database with novel Trichoderma strains, enhancing fungal genetic resources globally. These new entries provide unique genomic data, potentially revealing valuable traits, resolving taxonomic ambiguities within Trichoderma, and improving the reliability of the NCBI database for future studies.