Development of bacteria formulations for seed coating and seed production - BAC-COAT

Project summary

Formulation granting prolong survival on storage and both survival and sufficient level of bio-activity in field use represents the bottleneck in the broad scale implementation of biological means in plant protection urged by the EU directive on Integrated Pest Management 2009/128/EG. In BAC-COAT we are planning to address this challenge and develop principally new surface coating solutions for the protection of biocontrol microorganisms based on self assembly of mineral nanoparticles and poly(electrolyte) complexes that fulfil the following requirements, constituting a pre-requisite for successful and sustainable application of biological solutions for plant protection: • increased life time and storage stability (≥ 6 months) • tailored material properties to ensure controlled release, rapid activation and plant colonization when brought to the field and • are compatible with conventional processes and equipment for seed production The project will reveal crucial chemical and biochemical mechanisms in development of this type of coatings and identify the approaches permitting to achieve improved biocompatibility and also to understand possible differences in formation, stability and functionality of such coating for different types of microorganisms such as gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria and also spore-forming and non-spore-forming bacteria. The project will make its principal impact in development of sustainable materials and processes for the highly requested field of bio control addressing the market of large-scale plant cultures such as rice, maize, and potato. The developed technologies will find their direct implementation at the companies involved into this application, CaptiGel AB, Sweden – the producer of materials and Saatbau Linz GmbH – the producer of formulated seeds. The project can contribute in perspective to overtaking of large fractions of the multi-billion dollar market of plant protection.