Persistence of Brazilian isolates of the entomopathogenic fungi Metarhizium anisopliae and M. robertsii in strawberry crop soil after soil drench application

Abstract

Establishment, persistence and local dispersal of the entomopathogenic fungi Metarhizium anisopliae (ESALQ1037) and M. robertsii (ESALQ1426) (Ascomycota: Hypocreales) were investigated in the soil and rhizosphere following soil drench application in strawberries between 2012 and 2013 at a single location in Inconfidentes, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Metarhizium spp. isolates (n = 108) were collected using selective agar media and insect bait methods, and characterized by sequence analyses of the 5'-end of the translation elongation factor 1-a and the MzFG543igs intergenic region and by multilocus simple sequence repeat analysis. Both applied fungal isolates were frequently recovered from bulk soil and rhizosphere samples of the treated plots, suggesting that they were able to establish and disperse within the soil. Persistence within the soil and strawberry rhizosphere for both fungal isolates was observed up to 12 months after application with frequencies of 25% of haplotypes similar to isolate ESALQ1037 and 87.5% of haplotypes similar to isolate ESALQ1426, respectively. Overall, M. robertsii was the most abundant species in the agroecosystem studied representing 77.8% of the isolates recovered across all sample dates. 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Metarhizium alvesii sp. nov.: A new member of the Metarhizium anisopliae species complex

“…Although molecular tools such as single sequence repeat (SSR) markers have been proven useful to characterize strains of the M. anisopliae species complex, this approach is not adequate for species identification or reconstruction of phylogenetic relationships (Mayerhofer et al, 2015;Castro et al, 2016). CG1123 is currently the only example of M. alvesii, and the results presented here unambiguously support our claim that it is a new species.…”

Entomopathogenic fungi: unconventional applications

“…Worldwide, several different biopesticides based on species belonging to the genera Metarhizium, Beauveria, Paecilomyces, Isaria and Lecanicillium have been used. These fungi have a wide spectrum of activity, and they can therefore infect a wide variety of arthropod species (Khan et al 2012;Castro et al 2016;Ríos-Moreno et al 2016).…”

Preventive application of an entomopathogenic fungus in cover crops for wireworm control

“…Similar abundance and diversity of Metarhizium spp. has been reported for soils of different habitats and geographical regions around the world (Steinwender et al 2014;Enkerli et al 2016;Kepler et al 2015;Castro et al 2016). Metarhizium strains were re-isolated from about one third of the wireworm cadavers recovered from FCBK treatments.…”