5 M), sorbitol

(1.5 M) or caffeine (0.2%). Conidia spread on only PDA plates served as control. For cold stress experiments, conidia at a concentration of 1e + 06 ml-1 in sterile water was incubated at 4°C for 3 days, 6 days or 9 days and then spread on PDA plates. Frequency of conidial germination was determined post 16 h of spreading by counting the number of germinating and non-germinating conidia using microscope. Two hundred to three hundred conidia were counted for each treatment. Each experiment had 3 biological replicates and was repeated 2 times. Mycelial hydrophobicity of C. rosea strains were assayed on PDA plates post 3 days or 10 days of inoculation using water or SDS following the procedure described before [34]. The hydrophobicity Decitabine mw of conidia was assayed using MATH [34], and hydrophobic index was calculated following the formula described before [10]. For extracellular protein concentration determination, fungal strains were grown for 10 days in liquid PDB medium at 25°C, mycelial debris were removed by filtering through four layers of Miracloth, followed by protein precipitation using an acetone precipitation protocol as described elsewhere. The protein Rapamycin nmr pellets

were dissolved in water and total extracellular protein concentration was determined using the quick start Bradford protein assay kit following the manufacturer’s instruction (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA). Antagonism test Antagonistic behaviour against phytopathogenic fungi B. cinerea, F. graminearum and R. solani was tested using an in vitro plate confrontation assay on PDA medium. An agar plug of C. rosea was inoculated 2 cm from the edge in a 9 cm PDA plate. After 7 days of incubation at 25°C, a plug of B. cinerea, F. graminearum or R. solani was placed

at equal distance to the opposite edge of plate. To test the tolerance of C. rosea WT, deletion or complemented strains against secreted factors of B. cinerea, F. graminearum and R. solani, agar plugs of phytopathogenic fungi were inoculated on PDA plates covered with cellophane and incubated at 25°C in darkness. The plates covered with cellophane, without inoculation, were used as control. The cellophane was removed when fungal mycelia covered the plates, followed by inoculation with C. rosea WT, deletion or complementation strains. Linear growth 3-mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase was recorded daily in 3 replicates. For secretion assay, C. rosea strains were grown for 10 days in liquid PDB medium on rotary shaker at 25°C. Culture filtrate was collected after removing mycelia by filtering through four layers of Miracloth. The filtrate was further purified by passing through a 0.45 μM pore size nylon membrane. Agar plugs of B. cinerea, F. graminearum or R. solani was inoculated in conical flasks (50 ml) with 20 ml culture filtrate and incubated at 25°C under constant shaking condition (100 rpm). Biomass production in culture filtrates was analysed by determining mycelial dry weight post 3 days of inoculation. Detached leaf bioassay B.