Microbes, as microscopic workers, promise a new view of future factories on the basis of a sustainable economy.
It is in one of the early days of October, with the fall installed, threatening the rain, which we reached the Lezíria of Vila Franca de Xira. We follow the microbes rail between sand roads, turning here and there, with the fields divided between corn, almond, rice or tomato plantations, above all tomatoes.
Pedro Pinho, producer and farmer, is the guide between these plantations. Four years ago, he decided to bet on microorganisms. And not even the day with the rain falling, with the tomato harvest almost finished, makes him lose his smile and energy when he speaks of agriculture that is changing with the use of microbes, especially bacteria.
“Nowadays we look a lot at robots and robotization. In agriculture we look at microorganisms like workers who will help us continue to be competitive,” he says.
They are dissolved in the water that enters the watering systems. This is how they jump to the ground and start working. “This is the great revolution. I would say that the microorganisms begin a lot out there by making the ground, the medium where the plant is, in which it survives, which is the base, make it more resilient. And if we have a more balanced soil, the plants will also be more balanced, “he says. But more than that, that is what no longer harms the wealth on the floor.
“It allows us a significant reduction of fertilizers, or their maximization, when we apply, and on the other hand in protecting pests and diseases, we are replacing many of the chemical tools with microorganisms,” he adds.
The impact on productivity can increase by more than 40%, according to a study by the University of Aveiro, conducted in 2023. And these results can be decisive in an agricultural sector, that of industry tomatoes, of enormous economic importance for the country.
Portugal is the third largest producer at European level, just behind Italy and Spain, and one of the largest in the world.
And the microbes are not for tomatoes, they are also in corn. From Vila Franca de Xira we went to Santarém to meet João Coimbra. It is one of the largest producers in the country and considered by peers one of the best in the world. The 61 -year -old has the inheritance of a family business that has been installed here for over a century.
“The trick is to find diversity. And agriculture usually tends to lower diversity. That’s why the loss of biodiversity is so important,” says João Coimbra, while grabbing in a huge piece of soil, enthusiastic about the richness of microbes, between fungi and bacteria, which are here.
The harvest in the meantime finished opens space for the work that now begins. Inside a laboratory installed on this producer’s farm, it creates a biodiversity mixture, fed with microorganisms.
“It will be applied to the field through a watering system, which is mixed with water. And spread, with the watering machines, or with the gout the gout, or with the sprayer. Let’s bring this yeast over our soil that is increasingly biology, ”he said.
Half of the fertilization is already organic. João Coimbra wants, in five years, to completely reduce the use of substances harmful to the ground. “These are bacteria that will promote mycorrhizae, which are fungi that get involved around plant roots and often our still very traditional, very mobilized models have disappeared. And we are accelerating a process. They are bacteria that are taken from nature and are industrially multiplied and then we put it with the seeds, ”he says.
João and Pedro are customers of a company in Santarém, the pioneer in Portugal in the use of microorganisms to produce biofertilizers and bioestimulants. It sells to 36 countries around the world and has always been growing.
“It was a little naive for us to ignore the importance of these microorganisms. They are like those invisible workers who support all the dynamics and all the regulation that will be in the system, ”says Patrícia Correia, one of the researchers of this multinational, based in Coimbra.
They use national agricultural soil microorganisms that are brought to the laboratory, where they are studied, analyzed, kept and then reproduced. “Thanks to the bioactive compounds that these products, that these microorganisms produce, improving soil microbiome, we will have more resilient crops to to extreme climacteric phenomena of temperature or lack of water, ”says Joaquim Machado, Asfertglobal project manager.
Health and Industry
They entered medicine thanks to Pasteur in the nineteenth century, or Alexander Fleming in the twentieth century. Just think about penicillin and the revolution that allowed to save millions of lives. They are today present in various types of medicines.
Were identified in the database of the “About 1170 authorized medicines using microorganisms in their production. Considering a universe of 18,121 authorized medicines, we can say that there will be about 7% of the drugs with the characteristics.”
Microorganisms go further and go into promising treatments against various types of cancer. In December 2024, the team of Carla de Carvalho, a teacher in the Department of Bioengineering in partnership with began to test a bacteria in the Azores in 2015.
Serratia Rubidoea produces a compound with antitumor properties that may be a possible response to the cancer of the digestive system.
Carla de Carvalho is part of another investigation that promises a revolution in inspections and quality control. Doctoral researcher in biotechnology and engineer Telmo Santos, department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, they tested the potential of bacteria to detect microfissures, construction errors and microscopic defects.
“The technique works. It allows you to detect defects with some milliseconds of millimeter in different metal alloys, alloys and steel, magnesium alloys, titanium alloys, copper alloys, and also polymeric materials and ceramic materials. We managed to detect extremely reduced defects, ”says Telmo Santos.
Two bacteria were used from the Carla de Carvalho collection. A component is introduced that makes fluorescent microbes. So when they enter a fissure they get bright. They can detect failures on delicate structures such as optical lenses, electronic circuits or screws used in dental medicine. “If we soon get the possible place where there is a crack in a screw that goes to an implant, we can try to identify ways to protect this surface to avoid adherence of bacteria, these pathogenic,” says the researcher.
From the center to the north of the country, the trip follows a script written by the brands that microorganisms begin to leave. We entered the port of Matosinhos, on the way to the Interdisciplinary Marine and Environmental Research Center. About 1200 microorganism strains are stored here, especially cyanobacteria. “They are workers who are very manipulable from the point of view of their production. We were able to optimize culture conditions. That is, give it the best temperature, the best light, the best nutrients, so that they, not only grow, but to produce those molecules we want, ”says Vítor Vasconcelos, director of Ciimar.
Joana Reis de Almeida is one of the researchers of this center. It uses microbes that replace the toxic compounds used to paint the boats. “Nowadays, it seems impossible, but the paints that are currently in use still contain 30 percent copper that is a highly polluting heavy metal. And we are talking about 30 percent, “says the researcher.” And we want to replace this, we want to make the bacteria we have in the laboratory can produce the molecules that will prevent the ships from gaining that biological increditation, which is very negative from the commercial point of view, ”adds Vítor Vasconcelos.
Microbes, almost always bacteria, also enter the textile industry. A Barcelos company, RDD, was even the first to put on the dyed clothing with the help of microorganisms. The use of pigments produced by bacteria to replace the dyes made from oil derivatives is also being done in other laboratories, such as Kod Bio, to go further: “build the large factories that are the microorganisms of the future, which we use in everyday life,” says Ricardo Costa, from Kod Bio.
This company is committed to removing the components produced by the petrochemicals of products such as detergents to wash the dishes or floor, soaps or shower gel, lipsticks or collars. They collect the microorganisms, for example, on the coastline that walks between Matosinhos and Leça da Palmeira, between evil and the soil. They are then worked and multiplied in the laboratory. “Then a microorganism is able to replicate and give rise to biomolecules, which is what we do here at Kod Bio, to later give rise to bioproducts,” says Ricardo Costa.
It is also enjoyed the garbage that may sometimes end up in landfills. “These microorganisms need a food source and the source of food where it is? Is in waste,” says the person responsible for Kod Bio. “It’s not a waste, it’s a resource. It’s a set of nutrients that is here concentrated and then can be used as food for microorganisms,” adds Telmo Machado, Sustainable Lipor Products Unit, which collects waste in Porto metropolitan zone.
“We create here the concept of bioeconomics linked to the circular economy. Therefore, it is a perfect system, ”says Ricardo Costa, leaving open the idea that, with microbes within these future factories, there is a revolution that is underway.
