Search for antifungal molecules of bacterial origin

Different kinds of antibiotics are produced by several varieties of microorganisms. More than 800 antibiotics are already known and about 100 are discovered each year, but only a few are commercialized. The search for new antibiotics is of increasing interest because of the emergence of resistance of microorganisms to therapeutic agents. In the present work, several Fusarium sp antagonistic bacteria have been isolated. These bacteria secrete highly active antifungal substances into the culture medium, which are highly temperature-stable, highly soluble in water and methanol, resistant to proteases and exhibit a broad spectrum of activity against several pathogenic fungi. All these properties suggest that the structure of these substances could be lipopeptidic, and that the different antagonist strains isolated could be used as biocontrol agents against several plant pathogenic fungi.