Antifungal protection by endophytic bacteria in legumes

POSADA GA; PAREDES JA; GUZZO MC; SARDO, MF; PAROLA R; RUIZ OA; VALETTI, L; GONZALEZ PABLO; MONGUILLOT JH; MONTEOLIVA MI

Porto Alegre

Congreso; XVIII Brazilian Congress of Plant Physiology; 2022

SAFV Brasil

Peanut and chickpea are two of themajor crops cultivated in Cordoba (Argentina), in the summer and winterseasons, respectively. However, different fungal diseases generate substantialyield losses annually. Thecaphora freziiis the causal agent of peanut smut, which cause yield losses of up to 50%. Ascochyta rabiei, causal agent ofaschochyta blight, is worldwide spread and reach 100% of losses with favorableenvironmental conditions. Some tolerant cultivars were recently developed inpeanut but there are not effective chemical treatments for any of those fungaldiseases. However, beneficial bacteria have the potential to provide antifungaleffects that could be used as bioproducts to control these diseases. Ourproject aims to contribute to the solution by identifying endophytic bacteriawith antifungal effects in vitro and in vivo. We isolated bacterial strainsin chickpea and screened them for antifungal activity in vitro against A. rabieiand T. frezii. Among 58 evaluated isolates,we detected 9 with antifungal activity invitro against A rabiei, and fromthem, 2 presented antifungal activity against T. frezii in vitro. Inaddition, both two isolates demonstrated a broad-spectrum antifungal activity in vivo (in chickpealeaflets and peanut plants) against both pathogens. The two isolates with dualantifungal activity are the two strongest candidates to evaluate formulationsto develop a novel bioinput.