MICRORGANISMOS ANTAGONISTAS A FUNGOS FITOPATOGÊNICOS

Abstract

Brazil is currently considered the world's largest food producer, with soybeans as its main crop. The grain is cultivated in several Brazilian regions, equivalent to 81.6 million hectares planted throughout the country (CONAB, 2025). Crop productivity is limited to higher agricultural production due to abiotic conditions such as attacks by certain pathogens, such as soil-borne fungi of the genera Sclerotinia, Fusarium, and Rhizoctonia. These are cosmopolitan, distributed in various geographic regions worldwide, and can infect a range of plant species, causing significant agricultural losses (FARHAOUI et al., 2024, SHANG et al., 2024). They are difficult to control, leading to the widespread use of chemical fungicides in attempts to control these diseases. Biological control, through the use of certain microorganisms, has emerged as a promising strategy for preventing plant diseases. Some microorganisms have already been used to control plant diseases as biocontrol agents, including Bacillus spp., Pseudomonas spp., and Trichoderma spp. (HAN et al., 2025). The work was conducted at the Microbiology Laboratory of the IF Goiano, Rio Verde campus, Goiás, Brazil. The fungi used Sclerotinia, Fusarium, and Rhizoctonia were obtained from tissue samples measuring approximately 0.5 cm in diameter, which had been stored in Petri dishes in the laboratory's BOD, and transferred to new Petri dishes measuring 9 cm in diameter, containing potato dextrose agar (BDA) as the substrate. Then, they were placed in a climate chamber at 25°C. The results showed that the use of Trichoderma harzianum combined with a mix of bacteria from the genus Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Bacillus subitilis, and Bacillus pumilus, obtained better control results against the pathogens Sclerotinia, Fusarium, and Rhizoctonia.