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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Chem.
Sec. Green and Sustainable Chemistry
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fchem.2024.1473217
This article is part of the Research Topic Sustainable Synthesis for Obtaining Elements of Natural Origin with Antimicrobial Properties View all articles

Evaluation of the viability of microencapsulated Trichoderma longibrachiatum conidia as a strategy to prolong the shelf life of the fungus as a biological control agent

Provisionally accepted
Luis Diego Arias-Chavarría Luis Diego Arias-Chavarría 1Diego Batista-Menezes Diego Batista-Menezes 2Steffany Orozco-Cayasso Steffany Orozco-Cayasso 1Alejandro Vargas-Martínez Alejandro Vargas-Martínez 1JOSE ROBERTO VEGA BAUDRIT JOSE ROBERTO VEGA BAUDRIT 2Gabriela Montes De Oca-Vásquez Gabriela Montes De Oca-Vásquez 3*
  • 1 National University of Costa Rica, Heredia, Heredia, Costa Rica
  • 2 National Nanotechnology Laboratory, National Center for High Technology (Costa Rica), San Jose, Costa Rica
  • 3 Universidad Técnica Nacional, Alajuela, Costa Rica

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Trichoderma is an antagonistic fungus used commercially; however, the viability of these formulations is affected by biotic and abiotic factors. In this research, microcapsules of sodium alginate reinforced with nanocellulose and/or chitosan were developed to encapsulate Trichoderma longibrachiatum conidia and characterized by SEM, FTIR, and TGA. The viability of the microencapsulated conidia was evaluated through different temperatures (room temperature, 5 and 37 °C), as well as their in vitro antagonistic potential against Fusarium oxysporum. The formulations evaluated had encapsulation efficiencies above 92% and the microcapsules with alginate, chitosan, and nanocellulose maintained 100% viability at 37 °C for 2 months. In addition, all formulations evaluated retained antagonistic ability against F. oxysporum. These findings support the use of alginate, nanocellulose and chitosan for the formulation of microcapsules to maintain the viability of T. longibrachiatum conidia over time and at different temperature conditions.

    Keywords: Microcapsules, Alginate, nanocellulose, Chitosan, Phytopathogenic controller

    Received: 30 Jul 2024; Accepted: 30 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Arias-Chavarría, Batista-Menezes, Orozco-Cayasso, Vargas-Martínez, BAUDRIT and Montes De Oca-Vásquez. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Gabriela Montes De Oca-Vásquez, Universidad Técnica Nacional, Alajuela, Costa Rica

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.