The objective of this study was to evaluate the antagonistic activity of Trichoderma spp. against wild pathogen Fusarium oxysporum F.28.1A, which causes wilt disease on sesame. Twenty-six isolates of Trichoderma spp. isolated from soil samples were tested to control F. oxysporum F.28.1A. Prescreening showed that five isolates were T-02B1, T-18B2, T-20B1, T-28B1, and T-29A1, based on the lowest values of colony radius of F. oxysporum F.28.1A. The selected isolates were identified by their ITS region as T. yunnanense T-02B1, T. lentiforme T-18B2, T. asperellum T-20B1, T. hamatum T-28B1, and T. hamatum T-29A1, with similarities around 96–100%. The isolates selected were able to produce enzymes including chitinase, exo-β-1,3-glucanase, and endo-β-1,3-glucanase at levels of 0.34–0.44, 0.017–0.034, and 0.032–0.121 UI · ml ^–1, respectively, which were considered to be a mechanism to prevent the growth of F. oxysporum F.28.1A. The isolates tested were applied in soil pots to prevent damage from F. oxysporum F.28.1A as a following experiment. The greenhouse experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design with 10 treatments, including a negative control, application of only F. oxysporum F.28.1A, application of both F. oxysporum F.28.1A and fungicide chemicals, application of both F. oxysporum F.28.1A and Trichoderma spp. DHCT, application of T. yunnanense T-02B1, application of T. lentiforme T-18B2, application of T. asperellum T-20B1, application of T. hamatum T-28B1, application of T. hamatum T-29A1 and a mixture of the five selected isolates of Trichoderma spp. with their total population equal to that in individual strain application. The results showed that the five mixed isolates of Trichoderma had a synergistic effect on the reduction of the disease’s prevalence by 35% compared to the negative control treatment.

The investigation was conducted in 2004 and 2005 to test 28 sesame genotypes for resistance and susceptablity to Rhizoctonia solani under artificial infection conditions at the Plant Breeding Experimental Farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt. All screened sesame genotypes showed varied significant degrees of infestation with the root rot pathogen. It is worth to mention that some of sesame genotypes kept their resistance characterestic classes as moderately resistant (MR) or resistant (R) during the two successive seasons. Such genotypes might be useful for breeding programs due to stability of their resistant character as well as their seed yield. Phenotypic coefficients of variation (P.C.V.) and genotypic coefficients of variation (G.C.V.) were of high value regarding resistance characters during both seasons and comparable to seed yield character. The heritability estimates indicate that selection is a suitable way for picking up sesame genotypes that have high chance for resistance character to root rot disease (R. solani) with high seed yield potential. The genetic advance and heritability estimates in all cases supported the selection of some sesame genotypes to be used in next breeding programs for root rot resistance, they also showed a high seed yield potential.