Cultivation and Maintenance of Fungal Pathogens

The 59 isolates of T. sp. “atroviride B” were from the Lincoln University Culture Collection and are of New Zealand origin [16 (link)]. Four of these isolates, referred to as the patented strains in Table 1, are patented for the biological control of soil-borne plant pathogens and for promoting plant growth. Sporulating agar discs of each isolate were cultured on prune extract agar [36 ] at 20 °C under blue light, then stored at 4 °C in sterile reverse osmosis water. Rhizoctonia solani RsS73 isolate (hereafter referred to as R. solani) from perennial ryegrass and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum from oilseed rape are New Zealand isolates and were obtained from the Lincoln University Culture Collection. Alternaria radicina (ICMP 10124) and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici (ICMP 5204) were obtained from the International Collection of Microorganisms from Plants (Landcare Research, Lincoln, New Zealand). These pathogens were maintained at 4 °C after sub-culture every 1–4 weeks at 25 °C in the dark on 2.4% (w/v) potato dextrose agar (PDA; Difco, BD, Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA).