Bio-control of white and brown rot in beech and spruce wood using Bacillus amyloliquefaciens

Nowadays, new and environmentally-friendly methods of wood preservation have been focused. One of these methods is the bio-protection of wood against destructive agents in which microorganisms are used to protect the wood instead of chemicals. The aim of this study was to protect the beech and spruce wood against white and brown rot using a bacterium extracted from beech (Bacillus amyloliquefacien). For this purpose, B. amyloliquefaciens was first placed in a dual culture medium against wood-destroying fungi and then in wood specimens. The results showed that this bacterium inhibited the growth of destructive fungi in both media. The studied bacterium is capable of producing chitinase, amylase, and cellulase enzymes and the microscopic study confirmed the results of weight loss tests. Overall, here, for the first time, B. amyloliquefaciens is proposed as an efficient bio-control of wood decay.