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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Tifton, Georgia » Crop Protection and Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #155927
Title: THE ABILITY OF CONDITIONED MICROPLITIS CROCEIPES (HYMENOPTERA: BRACONIDAE) TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN ODORS OF AFLATOXIGENIC AND NON-AFLATOXIGENIC FUNGAL STRAINS

Author
item TERTULIANO, MOUKARAM - UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
item TOMBERLIN, JEFFERY - TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
item JURJEVIC, ZELJKO - UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
item RAINS, GLEN - UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
item WILSON, DAVID - UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
item Lewis, Wallace

Submitted to: Chemoecology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/19/2004
Publication Date: 6/1/2005
Citation: Tertuliano, M., Tomberlin, J. K., Jurjevic, Z., Wilson, D., Rains, G. C., Lewis, W. J. 2005. The ability of conditioned Microplitis croceipes (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) to distinguish between odors of aflatoxigenic and non-aflatoxigenic fungal strains. Chemoecology. 15:89-95.

Interpretive Summary: Alflatoxin-producing fungi are a major food safety concern for farm commodities such as corn and peanuts, and effective means for monitoring for their presence is limited. The parasitic wasp, Microplitis croceipes (Cresson) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), learns to associate odors with food resources. ARS and University of Georgia scientists at the Tifton, Georgia location demonstrated that wasps conditioned in this manner learn to distinguish among the smell of aflatoxigenic and non-aflatoxigenic Aspergillus flavus and parasiticus strains. They further determined how fungal species, strain, age, and growth media affected the learning and recognition responses of the wasps. This demonstrated keen ability of parasitic wasps to learn and distinguish fungal odors together with the influence of variables associated with the fungi can open avenues for the wasps' use as biologically-based chemical sensors of the fungi and other materials.

Technical Abstract: The parasitic wasp, Microplitis croceipes (Cresson) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), learns to associate odors with food resources. Wasps conditioned in this manner learn and subsequently distinguish among aflatoxigenic and non-aflatoxigenic Aspergillus flavus and parasiticus strains. The effects of fungal species, strain, age (5, 10-12, 20, and 30 d) and growth media, potato dextrose agar (PDA), peanut agar and corn agar on the learning and recognition responses of the conditioned wasps were examined in this study. Osmotropotaxi behavior (area-restricted searching) by wasps conditioned to a target fungal strain was used to differentiate between the target and non-target fungal strains. The level of differentiation between target and non-target strains by conditioned wasps was lowest when working with 5-d-old fungal cultures but increased with age and generally peaked with 20-d-old fungi. Wasp responses were significantly higher to the target than non-target fungi on all media used for fungus growth. This demonstrated keen ability of parasitic wasps to learn and distinguish fungal odors together with the influence of variables associated with the fungi can open avenues for the wasps' use as biologically-based chemical sensors of the fungi and other materials.