Evaluación in vitro de cepas de Bacillus spp., en el control de Fusarium oxysporum

Abstract

The large agricultural area of Ecuador (5.1 million hectares), distributed in different geographical areas, each with its own climatic characteristics where crops are grown from the tropics to highlands, these areas produce and export non-oil products such as bananas, cocoa, flowers etc. These products are threatened by the pathogenesis of the fungus F. oxysporum, which causes economic losses in many countries. Biocontrol of plant diseases with antagonistic microorganisms is a useful strategy to reduce the use of pesticides in agriculture and to reduce production costs and environmental impact. In this study, two conserved strains from the Salesian Polytechnic University (CT11 and Bs) and a fungal isolate from the Phytopathology Laboratory - AGROCALIDAD (FP-24-0190) were used, which were characterized by morphological, biochemical and molecular indicators for identification and confirmation, resulting in the diagnosis of Fusarium oxysporum by specific primers and the confirmation of two strains of B. megaterium and one strain of B. subtilis by sequencing. These strains (CT11 and Bs) were used for the in vitro evaluation tests of the percentage of inhibition by means of dual sowing, with the result that treatments T1 and T2 presented a percentage of inhibition of 34.32% and 42.54% respectively, therefore, it is concluded that the strain of B. subtilis (T2), presents better antagonism in contrast to B. megaterium (T1). These results allow establishing that the use of the evaluated strains for the control of Fusarium oxysporum is feasible.