CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Despite the growing importance of agricultural microbiology at theapplied, productive and ecological levels, undergraduate degrees inAgronomy generally do not feature much microbiological experimentation.To address this deficiency, we have designed an experimental programmethat evaluates the potential of plant growth-promotingrhizobacteria (PGPR) for the biocontrol of fungal pathogens. The approachinvolves an experimental laboratory class in which Agronomy studentsevaluate the ability of a rhizospheric Burkholderia sp. strain to inhibit thedevelopment of Sclerotium rolfsii (the causal agent of ?white wilt? diseasein peanut plants). The assays cover three aspects: biochemical mechanismsassociated to biocontrol properties in the bacterium, bacterium?fungus interaction (plate inhibition assays), and plant-bacterium-fungusinteraction (disease control assays). Students verify the bacterial strain?sability to produce fungi-degrading enzymes, inhibit fungal growth, andprotect the plant by inhibiting disease development. The assays serve asan integrative basis on which to discuss relationships between plants,bacteria, and fungi in connection with a disease which affects importantregional crops. This set of experiments should help students to developdifferent skills which will be key in their future professional career, such ashandling and designing experimental assays; comparing, discussing andsolving practical problems; and drawing conclusions from their observationsand the results obtained.