SELECTION OF <i>BEAUVERIA BASSIANA</i> (BALSAMO) VUILLEMIN ISOLATES FOR MANAGEMENT OF <i>MYZUS PERSICAE</i> (SULTZAR) (HOM.: APHIDAE) BASED ON VIRULENCE AND GROWTH RELATED CHARACTERISTICS

Abstract

ABSTARCTIsolates of the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana originated from Jordan were evaluated for their efficacy against the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae under laboratory and greenhouse conditions. Efficacy evaluation involved testing all isolates at a concentration of 1×10 7 conidia/mL followed by concentration dependent and greenhouse bioassays for the top virulent isolates. Growth characteristics related to virulence were evaluated for high, intermediate and low virulent isolates. Results showed that three isolates namely: BAU004, BAU018 and BAU019 were highly virulent to the aphid in the laboratory causing more than 75% infection. In the greenhouse, the three isolates caused infection from 41.3 to 46.5%. For the growth characteristics, isolate BAU019 produced more spores than the other highly virulent ones including the commercial isolate GHA. Highly virulent isolates also showed faster hyphal growth than low virulent isolates. These findings indicate that isolates BAU004, Bau018 and BAU019 might be developed as commercial microbial insecticides for safe and effective control of green peach aphid.

Direct and Indirect Effect via Endophytism of Entomopathogenic Fungi on the Fitness of Myzus persicae and Its Ability to Spread PLRV on Tobacco

“…In our case, it was widely demonstrated that the GHA strain of B. bassiana was effective against aphids, including M. persicae [80,86,87,106,107]. Moreover, there was a strong positive correlation between the mortality rate of nymphs and the EEPF colonization rate of leaves on which nymphs were deposited.…”

“…The effectiveness of B. bassiana as a biological control agent against phloem-feeding insects and especially aphids are well-known and widely documented [21,26,28,30,[80][81][82][83][84][85][86]. The most common treatment method use in the field and in the laboratory is the direct contact between the EPF spores and the insect pest [87][88][89][90].…”

Biocontrol Potential of Some Entomopathogenic Fungal Strains Against Bean Aphid Megoura japonica (Matsumura)

“…It was also reported that at concentrations of 10 7 and 10 8 conidia mL −1 of V. lecanii, the maximum mortality rate of M. persicae was recorded as 100% after 12 days of application [40]. Similarly, the effect of B. bassiana on M. persicae was also determined under the controlled condition with the concentration of 1 × 10 7 conidia mL −1 and showed that three strains of B. bassiana (BAU019, BAU004, and BAU018) showed high effect on aphids, with a mortality of over 75% [34,[41][42][43][44]. According to filtrate treatment, our results are similar to results which revealed that degradation of the insect body was observed at higher infiltrate treated aphids, and the reduction of aphid population was higher in higher dose filtrate treatment [27].…”

In Vitro Pathogenicity of Some Entomopathogenic Fungal Strains against Green Peach Aphid Myzus persicae (Homoptera: Aphididae)

“…Even biotypes of aphid (same species) may have different susceptibility to a fungal suspension [35]. Efficacy of B. bassiana against M. persicae aphids was evaluated under controlled conditions with the concentration of 1 × 10 7 conidia mL −1 and found that three isolates of B. bassiana (BAU004, BAU018 and BAU019) showed high virulence against test aphids with a mortality of more than 75% [36]. Similarly, the results of our study are in accordance with those found by [29,[37][38][39].…”