Florencia Alvarez

National Scientific and Technical Research Council | conicet · INBA Instituto de Investigaciones en Biociencias Agrícolas y Ambientales

Burkholderia ambifaria T16 is a bacterium isolated from the rhizosphere of barley plants that showed a remarkable antifungal activity. This strain was also able to degrade fusaric acid (5-Butylpyridine-2-carboxylic acid) and detoxify this mycotoxin in inoculated barley seedlings. Genes and enzymes responsible for fusaric acid degradation have an im...

The rhizosphere-associated microbiome has diverse functions that support plant growth and health, varying among plant species, vegetation growth stages and environmental habitats. This microbiome includes a group of bacteria denominated plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) which can colonize plant roots. Certain PGPR isolates improve the abi...

Vicia villosa is a cover crops commonly introduced in the rotation schema of sustainable agricultural practices. As a leguminous crop, Vicia villosa interacts with rhizobia to fix atmospheric nitrogen, modifying the nutritional status of consecutive crops. The interaction with other probiotic bacteria is, however, unknown. Burkholderia spp. are dom...

Burkholderia ambifaria T16 is a bacterial strain isolated from the rhizosphere of barley plants, which showed a potent antifungal activity against several Fusarium species. In this work, the construction of a mini-Tn5 insertional library in this strain allowed us the identification of several genes involved in the antifungal activity. In particular...

Soybean is the most important oilseed in the world, cropped in 120–130 million hectares each year. The three most important soybean producers are Argentina, Brazil, and United States, where soybean crops are routinely inoculated with symbiotic N2-fixing Bradyrhizobium spp. This extended inoculation gave rise to soybean-nodulating allochthonous popu...

Las ciencias agrarias y ambientales desde diferentes enfoques y niveles de análisis

Burkholderia ambifaria T16 is a bacterial strain isolated from the rhizosphere of barley which showed the ability to inhibit mycelial growth and conidial germination of several phytopathogenic fungi, including different Fusarium spp. With the aim to identify the genes responsible for this potent antifungal activity, an insertional mini-Tn5 library...

A growing body of evidence has reinforced the central role of microbiomes in the life of sound multicellular eukaryotes, thus more properly described as true holobionts. Though soil was considered a main source of plant microbiomes, seeds have been shown to be endophytically colonized by microorganisms thus representing natural carriers of a select...

Bacteria from the Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc) are capable of causing severe infections in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). These opportunistic pathogens are also widely distributed in natural and man-made environments. After a 12-year epidemiological surveillance involving Bcc bacteria from respiratory secretions of Argentinean patients w...

Bacillus amyloliquefaciens MEP218 is a native isolate with a broad spectrum of antifungal activity against plant pathogenic fungi. The ability of strain MEP218 to antagonize phytopathogens is due to the production of cyclic lipopeptides (CLPs). In this work, different carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) sources and C to N ratios were evaluated in order to...

Desmodium spp. are leguminous plants belonging to the tribe Desmodieae of the subfamily Papilionoideae. They are widely distributed in temperated and subtropical regions and are used as forage plants, for biological control, and in traditional folk medicine. The genus includes pioneer species that resist the xerothermic environment and grow in arid...

Background Pandoraea species are considered emerging pathogens in the context of cystic fibrosis (CF) and are difficult to identify by conventional biochemical methods. These multidrug resistant bacteria remain poorly understood particularly in terms of natural resistance, mechanisms of acquired resistance and impact on the prognosis of the disease...

Aims: In order to improve the quality and to create a biological basis for obtainment of the protected denomination of origin (PDO) indigenous yeast were isolated and characterized for use in Salinas city (the Brazilian region of quality cachaça production). Material and methods: 7,200 yeast colonies from 15 Salinas city distilleries were screen...

This study displays a screening using yeast strains deficient in protein kinases known to exist in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. From 95 viable single mutants, 20 mutants appear to be affected in the glucose-induced extracellular acidification. The mutants that are unaffected in calcium signaling were tested for their sensitivity to hygromycin B. Furth...

This study identified phenotypic traits appropriate for biotechnological applications of 118 yeasts isolated from cachaça distilleries. Different properties were verified: capacity to use alternative carbon sources; ability to tolerate high concentrations of sucrose, ethanol, methanol, aluminum and zinc as well as different pH values and foam produ...

In cachaça production, the use of yeast cells as starters with predictable flocculation behavior facilitates the cell recovery at the end of each fermentation cycle. Therefore, the aim of this work was to explain the behavior of cachaça yeast strains in fermentation vats containing sugarcane through the determination of biochemical and molecular pa...

Plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPBs) are capable of colonizing plants and influencing their growth by direct or indirect mechanisms. The direct mode of action occurs when metabolites or compounds synthesized by microorganisms are provided to the plant—for example, phytohormones—or when the bacteria facilitate the plant’s uptake of certain nutrie...

This work was conducted to identify the antifungal compounds produced by two previously isolated Bacillus sp. strains: ARP(2) 3 and MEP(2) 18. Both strains were subjected to further analysis to determine their taxonomic position and to identify the compounds responsible for their antifungal activity as well as to evaluate the efficiency of these st...

The plant growth-promoting rhizobacterium, Ochrobactrum sp. 11a displays a high intrinsic salinity tolerance and has been used in this work to study the molecular basis of bacterial responses to high concentrations of NaCl. A collection of Ochrobactrum sp. 11a mutants was generated by Tn5-B21 mutagenesis and screened for sensitivity to salinity. On...

A bacterial collection of approximately one thousand native strains, isolated from saline soils of Cordoba province (Argentina), was established. From this collection, a screening to identify those strains showing plant growth promotion and biocontrol activities, as well as salt tolerance, was performed. Eight native strains tolerant to 1 M: NaCl a...