Identification of Bacterial Communities Associated with Composting in Sugarcane Crops

Abstract

The use of chemical fertilizers increases crop production costs worldwide. Substituting chemical fertilizers for biofertilizers has been one of the great challenges of modern agriculture. During the last decades, it has been observed that compost is an excellent strategy to optimize the production of crops of agronomic interest, such as sugarcane. These are considered one of the world’s top crops because of their great economic impact. Furthermore, the microbial diversity associated with crops of economic importance can be an indicator of soil quality. In this study, bacterial strains from two composting plants in a sugar mill in Colombia were characterized. A total of 40 bacterial isolates were analyzed using BBL Crystal, and 11 of the isolates that showed cellulolytic activity were molecularly characterized. Proteobacteria and Firmicutes species were predominantly present in the two plants that were analyzed. The genera Aeromonas, Pseudomonas, and Enterobacter showed the highest cellulose-degrading activity, and they have the potential to reduce the time taken for the degradation of organic waste derived from sugarcane processing in Colombia.

Authors’ Contributions

L.N and A.R conceived and designed research. L.N conducted experiments. C.A and A.M analyzed data. A.R and L.N wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data Availability Statement

The datasets generated during the current study are available in the Universidad Santiago de Cali https://repository.usc.edu.co/.

Additional information

Funding

The Dirección General de Investigaciones of Universidad Santiago de Cali under grant number DGI: 939-621120-2467 funded this research.