Plant Growth Promotion Activity of Keratinolytic Fungi Growing on a Recalcitrant Waste Known as ?Hair Waste?

IVANA A. CAVELLO; JUAN M CRESPO; SABRINA S GARCÍA; JOSÉ M ZAPIOLA; MARÍA F LUNA; SEBASTIÁN F CAVALITTO

Biotechnology Research International

Hindawi Publishing Corporation

Lugar: Nasr City; Año: 2015 vol. 2015 p. 1 - 10

Purpureocillium lilacinum (Thom) Samsom is one of the most studied fungi in the control of plant parasitic nematodes. However,there is not specific information on its ability to inhibit some pathogenic bacteria, fungi, or yeast. This work reports the productionof several antifungal hydrolytic enzymes by a strain of P. lilacinum when it is grown in a medium containing hair waste. The growthof several plant-pathogenic fungi, Alternaria alternata, Aspergillus niger, and Fusarium culmorum, was considerably affected by thepresence of P. lilacinum?s supernatant. Besides antifungal activity, P. lilacinum demonstrates the capability to produce indoleaceticacid and ammonia during time cultivation on hair waste medium. Plant growth-promoting activity by cell-free supernatant wasevidenced through the increase of the percentage of tomato seed germination from 71 to 85% after 48 hours. A 21-day plant growthassay using tomato plants indicates that crude supernatant promotes the growth of the plants similar to a reference fertilizer (𝑝 >0.05). These results suggest that both strain and the supernatant may have potential to be considered as a potent biocontrol agentwith multiple plant growth-promoting properties. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the antifungal, IAA production andtomato growth enhancing compounds produced by P. lilacinum LPSC #876.