ANTIFUNGAL ACTIVITY OF BACTERIA ISOLATED FROM BAT GUANO ON PATHOGENIC FUNGI OF STRAWBERRIES

DELFINI CD, VILLEGAS LB, BAIGORI MD.

Puerto Madryn

Congreso; XLVI REUNION ANUAL SOCIEDAD ARGENTINA DE INVESTIGACION EN BIOQUIMICA Y BIOLOGIA MOLECULAR; 2010

SAIB

ANTIFUNGAL  ACTIVITY  OF  BACTERIA  ISOLATED FROM  BAT  GUANO  ON  PATHOGENIC  FUNGI  OF STRAWBERRIES Delfini CD, Villegas L, Baigori M PROIMI -CONICET.   Tu c umá n ,   Arg e n t i n a .   E-ma i l :  cdelfini47@hotmail.com Tucumán is the principal producer of strawberry of Argentine. The major  phytosanitary  disadvantages  of  this  crop  are  the  diseases produced by soil fungi. One of the most serious and common is the anthracnose  caused  by  fungal  of  genus  Colletotrichum.  They produce  the major  losses  both  in  the  fruit  and  plant  production. In previous works 6  chitinolitc bacteria  isolated  from bat guano (Taradita brasilensis) were characterized as belonging to Bacillus and Streptomyces genus. The  aim of  this work  is  to  study  the  antifungal  activity of  these chitinolitc  bacteria  on  fungus  of  Colletoctichum  genus  in  vitro. The 6 bacteria were incubated in 3 different media: SPI- colloidal chitin, SPI-pupa and Standar nutrient during 72h, 200  rpm and at 20, 25 and 28 ºC. Supernatants of these cultures were used in inhibition tests on Colletoctichum acutatum and C.fragariae grown on potato dextrose agar. Only  the  bacteria  of  the  genus  Bacilllus  showed  to  possess antifungical activity. Supernatants of B.atrophaeus PA 14 had the major capacity of inhibition of both fungi. The results suggest that this  bacterium  produce  extracellular  antifungal  metabolite. B.atrophaeus PA 14 is a potential antifungical biocontrol agent for anthracnose in strawberries. This will allow the decrease of the use of chemical products and will  favor  the  sustainable production. This work was  supported by grant PIP-CONICET 297.