Abstract:Background Trichoderma harzianum WF2 was isolated in our laboratory. It has excellent biocontrol effects on many tobacco diseases and can induce plant disease resistance, demonstrating a promising application prospect.Objective To optimize the fermentation conditions of T. harzianum WF2 for improving the yield of chlamydospores, providing a technological basis for the industrial production of this strain. In addition, the changes of the microbial community structure in the rhizosphere soil of tobacco after the application of the fermentation liquid of T. harzianum WF2 chlamydospores were analyzed.Methods The fermentation conditions were optimized by single factor experiments and the fermentation medium was optimized by the response surface methodology. The optimized fermentation product was verified by a pot experiment for biocontrol effect. The tobacco rhizosphere soil samples treated with WF2 chlamydospore fermentation broth were collected, and the community diversity and composition of rhizosphere microorganisms were analyzed by amplicon sequencing based on 16S rRNA gene and ITS region. The PICRUSt2 and FUNGuild databases were used to predict and analyze microbial functions.Results The optimum fermentation conditions were as follows: 25 ℃, 240 r/min, initial pH 4.0, an inoculation amount of 3%, and a liquid volume of 60 mL. The optimum fermentation medium was composed of 15.00 g/L glucose, 15.00 g/L sorghum powder, 19.61 g/L corn steep liquor, 1.25 g/L ammonium sulfate, 1.00 g/L magnesium sulfate, 1.00 g/L calcium carbonate, 1.00 g/L zinc sulfate, and 1.00 g/L potassium dihydrogen phosphate. Under these conditions, the yield of chlamydospores was the highest, reaching 5.16×107 CFU/mL. The pot experiment showed that the biocontrol effects of chlamydospore dilution at 1×107 CFU/mL on tobacco black shank and tobacco root rot were 87.33% and 81.00%, respectively. The application of WF2 chlamydospore fermentation liquid significantly increased the bacterial diversity and richness, while reducing the fungal diversity and evenness. In addition, the fermentation liquid increased the relative abundance of beneficial bacteria while reducing the relative abundance of harmful fungi.Conclusion The fermentation formula for the high yielding of chlamydospores is obtained by fermentation condition optimization. The application of the fermentation liquid significantly reduces the disease indexes of tobacco black shank and tobacco root rot. At the same time, it improves the microbial community structure in tobacco rhizosphere soil by increasing the relative abundance of beneficial bacteria and reducing the relative abundance of plant pathogenic fungi.