*3.4. Isolation and Identification of Selected Trichoderma spp. by Molecular Characterization*

The colonies of *Trichoderma* spp. were grown on PDA plates by incubating for 6–7 days at 28 ◦C. A total of 35 isolates of *Trichoderma* spp. were isolated from 197 different rhizosphere soils collected from different parts of Karnataka. Standard techniques were used for DNA isolation, agarose gel electrophoresis and PCR amplification. Three fungal cultures of *Trichoderma* spp. were identified by molecular identification and were found to be *Trichoderma harzianum* (PGT4) isolated from *Cucumis sativus* (cucumber) rhizosphere soil, *Trichoderma reesei* (PGT5) isolated from *Solanum melongena* (brinjal) rhizosphere soil and one more strain of *Trichoderma reesei* (PGT13) isolated from *Coriandrum sativum* (coriander) rhizosphere soil sample collected from the Chikkaballapura district. These isolates were further confirmed by database searches which were carried out with the BLAST programs available at the National Centre for Biotechnology Information (Bethesda, MD, USA), which showed the identification matching to 99%, 100% and 100%, respectively. Our findings co-related with that of Ru and Di [37], where the isolates were isolated from rhizosphere soil of potato (Table S3).
