Potencialidades del género Bacillus en la promoción del crecimiento vegetal y el control biológico de hongos fitopatógenos

Abstract

At the present work, the state-of-the-art about the potentialities of genus Bacillus in the plant growth promotion
and biological control is presented. This genus is widely distributed in many environments such as water and soil,
including extreme environments. The ubiquity of these bacteria is due to the wide metabolic versatility and the presence
of a resistance structure, the endospore. The identification of the species of Bacillus is very difficult using traditional
techniques but their taxonomy has been changed with the introduction of molecular techniques. The classification of
Gram positive endospore forming bacilli change each day. Currently more than 100 species have been reported to this
genus. The genus Bacillus and their relatives have been isolated from numerous economical important crops. This work
shows the potentiality of Bacillus in the plant growth promotion and biological control of phytopathogenic fungi. Several
capabilities have been demonstrated to Bacilli in associations with plants, such as the fitohormones production as auxins,
biological control through antibiotics, siderophores and lytic enzymes production, phosphate solubilization and nitrogen
fixation. On the other hand, the risk associated to its use in agriculture as biofertilizers and the different pathogenic
markers which can be used in the study of Bacillus genus will be exposed. The studies about the effect of these species
in different crops are exposed in the work.