Development of bioprocess for the production of flavonoids with antagonistic activity to phytopathogens by solid-state cultivation of filamentous fungi

• Grant number: 23/03828-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: December 01, 2023
• End date: August 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Chemical Engineering - Chemical Process Industries
• Principal Investigator: Fernanda Perpétua Casciatori
• Grantee: Fabíola Ribeiro de Oliveira
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Exatas e de Tecnologia (CCET). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/02449-0 - Evaluating flavonoids production by solid-state cultivation by filamentous fungi known as biopesticides using wastes abundant in spain as substrates, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

The development of new agricultural bioinputs has been gaining prominence in Brazil due to its commercial importance and the urgent need for national production. The global and national market for agricultural bioinputs has been growing exponentially in recent years, due to the effectiveness associated with greater sustainability due to the lower environmental impact and risk to human health, in addition to being able to promote a prolonged effect and self-regulation of agroecosystems. In view of this, this project, which will be carried out in partnership with the startup Ikove Agro, aims to develop a production process for flavonoids from filamentous fungi by fermentation in solid state. For this, the bioprospecting of 6 microorganisms belonging to the collection of endophytic isolates from savannah and the species Aspergillus flavipes, which produce flavonoids, will be carried out, using analysis by colorimetric method. From this initial screening, the influences of temperature, cultivation time and precursor compound on the induction of the production of these compounds will be evaluated, through kinetic and optimization studies. In vitro and in vivo antagonism tests against two phytopathogenic fungi will also be carried out in order to evaluate the antimicrobial action and potential application as a biodefensive, in addition to an HPLC screening of the phenolic compounds produced. Finally, for the most promising isolate, the scale-up of the process will be carried out using the conditions defined in the optimization step, starting in polypropylene bags with 10, 100, 200, 300 and 400 grams of substrate (composed of soybean meal and sugarcane bagasse) to production using 1.2 kg of material in a multilayer packed bed bioreactor (PBB).