Endophytic Bacteria , Isolated from , as Potential Biocontrol Agent against .

Plant diseases are one of the main factors responsible for food loss in the world, and 20-40% of such loss is caused by pathogenic infections. is the most widely studied necrotrophic phytopathogenic fungus. It is responsible for incalculable economic losses due to the large number of host plants affected. Today, is controlled mainly by synthetic fungicides whose frequent application increases risk of resistance, thus making them unsustainable in terms of the environment and human health. In the search for new alternatives for the biocontrol of this pathogen, the use of endophytic microorganisms and their metabolites has gained momentum in recent years. In this work, we isolated endophytic bacteria from cultivated in Colombia. Several strains of , isolated and characterized in this work, exhibited growth inhibition against of more than 40% in in vitro cultures. These strains were characterized by studying several of their biochemical properties, such as production of lipopeptides, potassium solubilization, proteolytic and amylolytic capacity, production of siderophores, biofilm assays, and so on. We also analyzed: (i) its capacity to promote maize growth () in vivo, and (ii) its capacity to biocontrol during in vivo infection in plants ().