Occurrence and insulation Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus during the culture of plant products: endophytic bacterium biotechnological applications

• Grant number: 13/14950-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2013
• End date: August 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Microbiology - Applied Microbiology
• Principal Investigator: Fernanda Maria Pagane Guereschi Ernandes
• Grantee: Amanda Ismael Rodrigues Ferri
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências da Saúde (ICS). Universidade Paulista (UNIP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Studies focusing mainly on the isolation and purification of new microorganisms producing the exopolysaccharide levan, as well as the use of low cost substrates such as commercial agribusiness aimed at optimizing its production, are of great value to the scientific community, because this biomolecule is used in the pharmaceutical industry as hypocholesterolemic, anticarcinogenic, prebiotic agent and modified release of drugs. The perspectives of the culture of sugar cane (Saccharum spp.) have increased due to new discoveries in science, with a bioprospecting for the replacement of nitrogen fertilizers by bacteria that fix atmospheric nitrogen (N2) and convert it in the form that the plant can to assimilate, as Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus is an endophytic bacterium that mandatory and is the only species of the genus capable of fixing nitrogen. Besides the strong performance in agricultural production, the bacterium is also equipped with other features, but less discussed, such as the levan biosynthesis. This work has as objective to isolate, characterize morphologically and select strains producing levan from endophytic bacteria associated with varieties of cane sugar grown in the São José do Rio Preto region, São Paulo State, with characteristics similar to G. diazotrophicus. Will be determined the relative frequency (%) of bacterial isolates that are experiencing levan production and thus confirm that the strain under study may present a potential for biotechnological applications in the pharmaceutical area. Complemented the study, is hosting a fermentation bioprocess to analyze and compare the efficiency of fermentation endophytic strain isolated from plant samples in relation to the Zymomonas mobilis, considered the microorganism commonly used in fermentation processes for synthesis of exopolysaccharide.