New success for Futureco Bioscience researchers, who deposit in GenBank – the NIH (National Institutes of Health) public database of genetic sequences, and reference for laboratories worldwide – the first complete genetic sequence of a Microbacterium esteraromaticum strain. To date, only scattered pieces of the genome of this species have been sequenced. Futureco Bioscience researchers have succeeded in finishing the puzzle and assembling the genome of M. esteraromaticum B24 into a single complete circular chromosome, solving the last doubts about the possible order of the genetic sequence pieces or the existence of intermediate sequences that might have been missing.
Bacteria of the genus Microbacterium are Gram-positive, non-spore forming, cylindrical shaped, psychotropic (growing and multiplying at low temperatures) and highly heat resistant bacteria. Members of the genus Microbacterium can be isolated from a wide range of environments, including soil, insects, human clinical specimens, marine environments, plants, and dairy products. The B24 strain of M. esteraromaticum in particular, isolated in Almeria (Spain) and part of the vast collection of microorganisms of Futureco Bioscience, has a peculiarity that has made this bacterium interesting in the eyes of our researchers: its nematicidal activity.
Until now, we could highlight as the main microbial groups with potential as biological control agents of nematodes, bacteria such as Pasteuria penetrans and Tsukamurella paurometabola, which are part of commercial products registered in the United States and some Latin American countries, as well as the fungi Arthhobotrys irregularis, Paecilomyces lilacinus and Pochonia chlamydosporia.
The in vitro, climatic chamber, greenhouse and field experiments carried out to evaluate the nematicidal activity of the B24 strain of M. esteraromaticum have clearly demonstrated its effectiveness in controlling root‐knot nematodes (of the genus Meloidogyne) and cyst forming nematodes (of the genus Globodera) in tomato, cucumber, melon and potato crops.
Futureco Bioscience has already filed a patent application and is working to incorporate a nematicide product based on this strain as an active ingredient into its catalog.