Crops protection in sustainable agriculture: new antimicrobial phytoextracts formulations against plant bacteria
Progetto In crops, many phytopathogenic bacteria can cause serious problems affecting different parts of plant, including spots, rots, cankers, wilting, and so on. Plant infection causes reduced plant growth and yield, lower product quality, deterioration, or destruction of crops, all of which have a significant economic impact. In terms of avoiding large financial and crop production losses, the use of agents to treat pathogenic bacteria is extremely beneficial. The effective control of plant disease in crop cultivation is generally achieved by use of synthetic pesticides. In addition, the use of antibiotics on a large scale would soon lead to the appearance of resistant forms not only among phytopathogenic bacteria, but also among those pathogens of human and veterinary interest. The FORMUBAC project aims to develop efficient antimicrobial phytoextracts formulates produced by medicinal plant extracts, effective against plant bacterial pathogens in organic farming avoiding the onset of resistance. FORMUBAC will exploit the knowledge, tools and results achieved in basic research for the development of effective technologies (applied research and technology transfer) for the development of antimicrobial agents used for the integrated management of crop pests. The project will focus on a number of specific objectives: 1. Identification of phytoextracts of medicinal plants which are known as etiologic agents of plant diseases. 2. Development of innovative and sustainable extraction processes that ensure high standardization, reproducibility and maximum yield in the composition of the extract. 3. Identification, by in silico methods, of phytoextract compounds that can target possible virulence processes. The mechanism of interaction of bacteria with target compounds associated with antibacterial effects will be investigated. 4. Formulation of nanoemulsions able to solubilize in aqueous medium phytoextracts with high efficacy and to stabilize the bioactive compounds. The project will be organized in two phases. In the first one, a number of phytoextracts with antimicrobial activity will be identified to be used as an alternative to conventional antibiotics. In the second phase, the microbiological and chemical knowledge of the products will be transferred to obtain stable formulations.