ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Food Microbiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1615252
Antifungal potential of Bacillus Strains: Implications for biocontrol strategies in food safety and sustainable agriculture
Provisionally accepted
Houda Gharsallah1Manel Cheffi1Rahma Mallek1Afef Massoudi2Noura Omri3Mohamed Ali Triki1
Mecit Oztop4*
Zied ZARAI5- 1Olive Tree Institute, University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia
- 2National Engineering School of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia
- 3Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique de Tunisie (INRAT), Ariana, Tunisia
- 4Department of Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Ankara, Türkiye
- 5Higher Institute of Biotechnology of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Microbial spoilage and phytopathogen infections significantly reduce the shelf life of perishable foods, posing challenges for agriculture and food supply chains. Bacillus species, known for their production of antifungal metabolites such as lipopeptides and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), present a sustainable alternative to synthetic fungicides. This study aimed to assess the antagonistic activity of selected Bacillus strains against nine fungal phytopathogens, including those affecting tomatoes, using dual-culture assays, lipopeptide bioassays, and VOC-mediated inhibition tests. Four Bacillus strains H6 (Bacillus velezensis), S15 (Bacillus subtilis), S32 (Bacillus cereus), and S40 (Bacillus subtilis), were evaluated through 108 dual-culture assays, PCR screening for lipopeptide biosynthesis genes, and VOC-mediated inhibition experiments.Strains H6 and S15 exhibited strong antagonistic effects, inhibiting mycelial growth by up to 78% for Botrytis cinerea (H6) and 87% for (S15). In vitro lipopeptide bioassays showed that purified extracts from Bacillus strains H6, S15, and S32 inhibited Rhizoctonia solani mycelial growth by 60%. VOCs produced by all strains completely inhibited the growth of Fusarium oxysporum and Lasiodiplodia theobromae, with S40 demonstrating the highest VOC-mediated inhibition. These findings highlight the potential of H6 and S15 strains that showed exceptional antifungal activity through iturin/fengycin lipopeptides and VOCs, supported by genetic evidence of biosynthetic genes, making them prime candidates for food preservation and agricultural biocontrol applications.
Keywords: biosurfactants, Lipopeptides, Bacillus, fungal food spoilage, Antifungal activity, VOCs
Received: 21 Apr 2025; Accepted: 18 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gharsallah, Cheffi, Mallek, Massoudi, Omri, Triki, Oztop and ZARAI. 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: Mecit Oztop, Department of Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, 06800 Çankaya, Ankara, Türkiye
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.