Desarrollo de un prototipo de microencapsulado del hongo biocontrolador Trichoderma harzianum obtenido a partir de fermentaciones de conidias en biorreactor

The excessive use of synthetic pesticides in agriculture is one of the leading causes of
contamination of soil, water, food and the appearance of resistant agricultural phytopathogens.
Therefore, it is necessary to develop bioproducts as alternatives that help reduce their negative
environmental, economic, and health impacts. One of the most successful agricultural bioproducts
is the massive production of antagonist fungal conidia such as Trichoderma harzianum, which has
high efficiency and multiple biocontrol mechanisms. Fermentation bioprocesses accelerate its
production in liquid media by controlling critical variables related to quality, homogeneity, and
antagonistic activity. These bioproducts are a viable alternative for sustainable production, however,
due to their biological nature, they have short storage periods, and their effectiveness depends on
the correct management of the producers. To improve the characteristics of these bioproducts,
there are currently multidisciplinary tools such as nanobiotechnology, with which nano and
microencapsulated biomass or metabolites have been developed. This microencapsulation
technology confers new properties to the system, for example, controlled and smart dosing,
protection of the conidia or the metabolite against the environment, and extended periods of product
storage with less loss of viability.
Based on this approach, we propose a project that develops a microencapsulation prototype from
the antagonist fungus Trichoderma harzianum. Initially, this fungus will be produced in a bioreactor
in a liquid medium to generate viable conidia under controlled agitation, nutrition, pH, and other
critical physicochemical variables. The growth curves of the fungus will be rendered by software
once the conditions have been optimized. At the same time, a factorial design of encapsulation
conditions will be developed using the ionic gelation technique, which involves mixing the natural
sodium alginate polymer as an encapsulating protective agent and ionic crosslinking with divalent
calcium cations. This factorial will include a combination of polymer, crosslinking agent, agitation,
and dehydration treatment. The variables that will define the optimal synthesis conditions will be:
size (hydrodynamic diameter nm), polydispersion index, shape, surface charge (mV), encapsulation
efficiency, release kinetics, UV radiation protection, accelerated viability (weeks), and in vitro
antagonism (%). The conditions will be optimized to select the most appropriate microencapsulate
procedure to replicate it in three small standardized batches. In addition to the in vitro test against
three relevant phytopathogens, a greenhouse test of effectiveness against Fusarium oxysporum
will be carried out in tomato plants using the best microencapsulated.
Therefore, we intend to develop a prototype of microencapsulated conidia from Trichoderma
harzianum as a functional bioproduct with improved characteristics and the potential to reduce the
excessive use of synthetic pesticides in agriculture.

Desarrollar un prototipo de microencapsulado de uso agrícola a partir del hongo
biocontrolador Trichoderma harzianum obtenido a partir de fermentaciones de conidias en biorreactor.

Biotecnología ambiental