Hey readers,

Here’s what made news this week!

On the science side, a microcapsule that mimics a spore helps protect the microorganisms inside it, and a soil study follows a potential biocontrol strain for 168 days.

On the industry side, Zymofix is preparing to scale solid-state fermentation at a new facility in Belgium, and Certis Belchim is bringing a fungal bionematicide to Spanish greenhouse growers.

Let's dive in!

Researchers at Nanjing Tech University designed a microcapsule inspired by microbial spores. Rather than only shielding the cell, it helps induce a dormant state. They tested it on Pantoea alhagi NX-11, a bacteria isolated from rice rhizosphere in saline soil that helps rice tolerate salt by secreting exopolysaccharides.

The capsule has a core of sodium alginate and poly(γ-glutamic acid) and a chitosan shell. Proteomic analysis indicated suppression of the TCA cycle and oxidative phosphorylation, which the researchers interpreted as evidence of a dormancy-like state linked to longer survival.

After 12 weeks at 25 °C, encapsulated NX-11 retained about 2.7 × 10⁸ CFU per gram, compared with about 9 × 10² for free cells, from similar starting counts of around 10⁹ CFU per gram. The same capsule also improved eight-week survival of Lysobacter enzymogenes OH11 and Pseudomonas nitroreducens L16.

The effect carried through to the plant. Compared with free NX-11 cells, encapsulation increased the strain's abundance on rice roots by 342% and seedling dry weight under salt stress by 14.6%. In a saline field, grain yield was 15.8% higher.

Broader field validation and scalable manufacturing would help establish how readily the approach can translate into a commercial inoculant.

Researchers at INRAE in Dijon tracked how long Bacillus sp. SCL1 survives in soil and what it does to the microbes already living there. The strain was supplied by Éléphant Vert and is being developed against Sclerotinia sclerotiorum.

They inoculated three different agricultural soils from Burgundy at an agronomic dose and a much higher one (around 6.6 × 10³ and 6.2 × 10⁷ CFU per gram of soil at inoculation, respectively), and tracked the strain for 168 days by plate counting and strain-specific qPCR.

The population fell quickly after inoculation. At the high dose, plate counts dropped to between 2.2 × 10³ and 4 × 10³ CFU per gram and stayed at that level from day 56 to day 168.

Effects on the resident community were limited. Compared with untreated soil, no more than 9.9% of the types of bacteria and 3.8% of the types of fungi changed in abundance. The authors describe these shifts as comparable with those of a commercial biocontrol product and the fungicide tebuconazole tested alongside.

Both doses at first reduced bacterial alpha-diversity, meaning the number and balance of species within each soil sample. At the high dose, diversity had returned to the level of the untreated soil by day 56. At the low dose the reduction lasted longer, a result the authors did not expect.

The work ran in microcosms and without the pathogen, so efficacy was not measured, and the authors call for field trials in rapeseed, one of the crops where Sclerotinia stem rot causes major losses.

Zymofix, a Belgian company specialising in microbial manufacturing through solid-state fermentation, has closed a Series A funding round to support a new manufacturing plant in Deinze, Belgium. The round was led by European venture capital firm First Imagine!, with participation from existing investors VP Capital, HTGF and The Nest Family Office.

Production at the new facility is expected to begin in Q4 2027, with an initial capacity of 300 tonnes per year.

Zymofix's proprietary platform, Zyft, grows microorganisms on thermally processed agricultural residues, combining fermentation and formulation. Those residues serve both as the substrate supporting microbial growth and as the matrix carrying the microorganisms in the resulting product. According to Zymofix, this approach can lower manufacturing costs while making use of local biomass residues.

The platform provides an alternative production route for microorganisms that are not well suited to conventional liquid fermentation. Finding a promising strain is only part of the work; producing it consistently, efficiently and at commercial volumes is another. This is where Zymofix comes in, helping customers grow living microorganisms on solid substrates through a controlled and scalable process.

Zymofix reports testing more than 170 bacterial, fungal and yeast strains on its platform. It works as a manufacturing partner, supporting customers through process development, fermentation, formulation and scale-up. Agriculture is a major focus for the company, with customer programmes covering biostimulants, biofertilisers and biocontrol products.

Zymofix plans a further €25 million expansion in 2028, once the first production line has been tested and is running successfully. This would increase capacity to 2,000 tonnes per year.

Certis Belchim has launched Nemaclean in Spain, a registered bionematicide based on the fungus Purpureocillium lilacinum strain PL11, aimed at root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.) in greenhouse vegetables, especially tomato.

The fungus acts on contact, mainly against eggs and juveniles. Its spores germinate on the eggs and penetrate them through physical pressure and enzymes such as chitinases, and it is especially active on immature eggs. It is applied as a wettable powder through irrigation, from transplant to harvest.

The company also describes PL11 as a root growth-promoting fungus. According to Certis Belchim, it helps roots recover activity and produce new absorbent hairs, improving water and nutrient uptake, and contributes to breaking down organic matter and releasing nutrients in the soil.

The company reports efficacy close to 90% when Nemaclean is used within a complete post-transplant nematode programme, and yield gains of 15 to 30% over untreated crops.