Biotechnological potential of secondary metabolites from Antarctica fungi with activity against plant pathogenic bacteria.

Abstract

In Brazil many bacterial diseases, especially bacteria Xanthomonas genus, affect economically important crops. The uses of chemicals to control these plant diseases cause negative impacts on health and the environment. Thus, the search for sustainable alternatives to combat these diseases is becoming increasingly important. In this context, secondary metabolites have aroused great interest as alternatives to chemicals. It is suspected that unknown secondary metabolites can also be produced by fungi that live in extreme environments such as Antarctica. Thus, this project aims to investigate the potential activity of secondary metabolites produced by fungi isolated from different Antarctic soils against several Xanthomonas species economically important for the country. For this, fungi collected from soils in Antarctica expedition under the INCT Cryosphere, which are preserved by the Microbial Resources Center UNESP will be used. The extracts and isolated secondary metabolites will be tested against Xanthomonas species which cause diseases in cultures of sugarcane, tomato, citrus fruits, cassava and passion fruit. This project will result in obtaining metabolites with high bactericidal potential to be used in agriculture as well as allow the expansion of knowledge of the diversity of metabolites produced by fungi of Antarctica and the structuring of an extratoteca, which will serve as a source of samples to be tested in many biological models. (AU)