Production of Trichoderma micropropagules as a biocontrol agent in static liquid culture conditions by using an integrated bioreactor system

ABSTRACT

In this study, we optimised the conditions for the production of micropropagules of Trichoderma harzianum EGE-K38 in static liquid culture in Modified Czapec Medium (MCM) containing 8 g/L glucose in an integrated tray bioreactor system designed by our research group. Incubation temperature, air flow rate, inoculum spore concentration, inoculation size, medium volume and the use of spores or agar plugs containing mycelia as inoculum were individually studied as one factor at a time. The maximum micropropagule count was 5.2 ± 0.2 × 10⁹cfu/mL and dry cell weight was 17 ± 2 g/L. For the subsequent drying processes, the maximum drying yield percentage ((viable micropropagule counts after drying/viable cells before drying)*100) after drying of micropropagules was 23.30% (cfu/cfu). Results obtained from our integrated tray bioreactor system showed that static liquid culture fermentation offers potential for industrial scale fungal BCAs production.

KEYWORDS:

• Trichoderma harzianum
• biological control
• micropropagule production
• tray bioreactor
• drying

Acknowledgements

The research supported by Ege University Research Fund (2010/BİL/022) is highly appreciated. We also acknowledge BAKON Ltd. Sti. for manufacturing of bioreactor and trays, Prof. Rengin ELTEM and EU Department of Bioengineering Industrial Microbiology Laboratory staff for kind supply of Trichoderma harzianum EGE-K38 fungi cultures from their culture collection and Selçuk HOŞOĞLU (MSc) for bioreactor drawings.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Sayit Sargin http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5037-3193

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ege Üniversitesi [grant number 2010/BİL/022].