Catherine Cesa-Luna
Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, Mexico
Title: Antagonism of Pseudomonas sp. EMM-1 and its potential as biocontrol agent
Biography
Biography: Catherine Cesa-Luna
Abstract
Bacteria may exhibit antagonistic interactions to compete for space and nutrients in their habitat. This competition has been mainly evaluated by double-layer agar and simultaneous inhibition assays. The best known antagonistic bacteria are Enterococcus, Lactococcus, Streptomyces, Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Klebsiella, Escherichia and Burkholderia due to their potential to produce inhibitory substances such as broad-spectrum antibiotics, organic acids, siderophores, antifungal and bacteriocins. Our study model, Pseudomonas sp. EMM-1, is a Gram-negative bacterium isolated from contaminated soil highly competitive due to the production of one or more inhibitory substances. It has been demonstrated its antimicrobial activity against diverse beneficial and pathogenic microorganisms including the genera Bradyrhizobium, Azotobacter, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Klebsiella and Burkholderia; as well as the phytopathogenic fungi Pantoea and Fusarium. In this work the ability of Pseudomonas sp. EMM-1 to inhibit diverse fungi isolated from soil and plants with fungal diseases, such as Aspergillum and Fusarium was verified by the double-layer agar assay, leading us to assume its potential as biocontrol agent.