Characterization of Bacillus velezensis UTB96, Demonstrating Improved Lipopeptide Production Compared to the Strain B. velezensis FZB42

Abstract

Bacillus strains can produce various lipopeptides, known for their antifungal properties. This makes them attractive metabolites for applications in agriculture. Therefore, identification of productive wild-type strains is essential for the development of biopesticides. Bacillus velezensis FZB42 is a well-established strain for biocontrol of plant pathogens in agriculture. Here, we characterized an alternative strain, B. velezensis UTB96, that can produce higher amounts of all three major lipopeptide families, namely surfactin, fengycin, and iturin. UTB96 produces iturin A. Furthermore, UTB96 showed superior antifungal activity towards the soybean fungal pathogen Diaporthe longicolla compared to FZB42. Moreover, the additional provision of different amino acids for lipopeptide production in UTB96 was investigated. Lysine and alanine had stimulatory effects on the production of all three lipopeptide families, while supplementation of leucine, valine and isoleucine decreased the lipopeptide bioproduction. Using a 45-litre bioreactor system for upscaling in batch culture, lipopeptide titers of about 140 mg/L surfactin, 620 mg/L iturin A, and 45 mg/L fengycin were achieved. In conclusion, it becomes clear that B. velezensis UTB96 is a promising strain for further research application in the field of agricultural biological controls of fungal diseases.

Bacillus velezensis LT1: a potential biocontrol agent for southern blight on Coptis chinensis

“…Vahidinasab et al reported that B. velezensis UTB96 produced surfactin, fengycin, and iturin, which showed excellent inhibitory activity against the soybean fungal pathogen Diaporthe longicolla . Lysine and alanine could stimulate the production of these three lipopeptide antibacterial compounds ( Vahidinasab et al, 2022 ). Kim et al isolated B. velezensis TSA32-1 from the soil, which could inhibit the growth of F. graminearum , F. fujikuroi , A. alternatia , and Diaporthe actinidiae .…”

Strategies for improving fengycin production: a review

“…As mentioned previously, exogenous supply of amino acids can effectively increase fengycin production [54,56,66,67]. Concurrently, the utilization of exogenous amino acids requires the assistance of amino acid transporters and efficient expression of related proteins is crucial for fengycin synthesis.…”

“…It has been demonstrated that the addition of fatty acids (including myristic acid, pentadecanoic acid, heptadecanoic acid, nonadecanoic acid, and C16 fatty acid) [14,61] and amino acids (such as glutamic acid, asparagine, serine, alanine, lysine, and ornithine) [54,56,66,67] significantly enhanced the production of fengycin, in which the addition of alkanoic acid could up-regulate the transcription levels of synthetic genes fenA, srfAA, ituD, and fatty acid metabolismrelated genes fabI and fadB [14], while addition of 10 g/L glutamic acid enhanced fengycin production mainly by up-regulating the expression of membrane transport systems [54]. Nevertheless, the addition of the identical amino acids may also result in different effects on fengycin production in different strains [54,61,66]. This variation may be attributed to differences in the distribution of metabolic fluxes in different strains, which in turn result in varying requirements for precursor amino acids.…”

Bacillus subtilis YZ‐1 surfactins are involved in effective toxicity against agricultural pests

“…The whole genome of this strain was sequenced and submitted to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database (accession number CP069239). Other strains used in this study: B. subtilis 168, 15,16 B. subtilis L1-21, 17,18 B. subtilis XF-1, 19,20 Bacillus velezensis B9601-Y2 21 and B. velezensis FZB42 [22][23][24] were also acquired from our laboratory. The Luria-Bertani (LB) 25 medium was used to prepare filtrate of B. subtilis YZ-1 which was then incubated at 37 ± 1 °C at 160 rpm for 72 h.…”