Isolation and characterization of carbendazim degrading trichoderma harzianum rifai mutants

Mutants of Trichoderma harzianum Rifai, obtained after ultraviolet (UV) light exposure, showed high resistant to the fungicide benomyl. A mutant (2B6)was capable of degrading carbendazim, other fungicide of the benzimidazole fungicide. This mutant degraded 41.5% of the molecule within five days. This and others mutants (2B1 and 2B2) presented variation in size and frequency of uni-nucleated and/ or bi-nucleated spores compared to the wild type. Four primers generated RAPDs patterns that allowed the mutant to be differentiated from the wild-type. It is concluded that using UV mutagenization, it is feasible to obtain strains of T. harzianum with improved pesticide degradation ability.