Abstract
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 production of several antifungal hydrolytic enzymes by a strain of P. lilacinum when it is grown in a medium containing hair waste. The growth of several plant-pathogenic fungi, Alternaria alternata, Aspergillus niger, and Fusarium culmorum, was considerably affected by the presence of P. lilacinum's supernatant. Besides antifungal activity, P. lilacinum demonstrates the capability to produce indoleacetic acid and ammonia during time cultivation on hair waste medium. Plant growth-promoting activity by cell-free supernatant was evidenced through the increase of the percentage of tomato seed germination from 71 to 85% after 48 hours. A 21-day plant growth assay 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 agent with multiple plant growth-promoting properties. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the antifungal, IAA production and tomato growth enhancing compounds produced by P. lilacinum LPSC #876.
Highlights
Keratin solid wastes are globally recognized as a crucial industrial waste because of the amount produced every year and the environmental problems that they represent due to their limited use and the consequent need of disposal
Purpureocillium lilacinum LPSC #876, isolated from soils in public places from La Plata, Argentina [11], is a nonpathogenic fungal strain, which is deposited at the Spegazzini Institute fungal culture collection (La Plata National University, Argentina)
P. lilacinum LPS #876 was previously reported as a keratinolytic fungus capable of producing keratinases when hair waste was used as substrate under submerged fermentation
Summary
Keratin solid wastes are globally recognized as a crucial industrial waste because of the amount produced every year and the environmental problems that they represent due to their limited use and the consequent need of disposal. There are around 50 million livestock and more than 200 tanneries that process about 16 million bovine hides per year. The amount of hair recovered from a bovine hide after this process is about 3% (dry weight based). It was estimated that a tannery, processing 25 ton of salted hides per day, produces about 2.5 ton of wet hair (70% moisture) [1, 2]. After the processing of bovine hides, hair wastes are disposed to landfills carrying potent polluting implications
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