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Submitted to: Mycoscience
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: 6/18/2006 Publication Date: 10/15/2006 Citation: Posada, F.J., Vega, F.E. 2006. inoculation and colonization of coffee seedlings (coffea arabica l.) with the fungal entomopathogen beauveria bassiana (ascomycota: hypocreales). Mycoscience. 47:284-289. Interpretive Summary: The coffee berry borer causes severe yield losses to coffee growers throughout the world. One way to control this insect is to infect it with an organism that will kill the insect but that won’t damage the coffee berry. The insect pathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana is an organism that has that potential. We have developed a method to establish Beauveria bassiana in coffee seedlings as part of our research aimed at developing an environmentally-friendly and sustainable pest control method against the coffee berry borer. By living harmlessly inside the coffee plant, Beauveria bassiana has the potential to infect and kill the coffee berry borer before it can damage the coffee seeds. This information will be of use to coffee growers, action agency personnel, other scientists studying this insect, and to pest control managers. Technical Abstract: The fungal entomopathogen Beauveria bassiana became established as an endophyte in in vitro grown coffee seedlings inoculated with B. bassiana suspensions in the radicle. The fungus was recovered as an endophyte 30 and 60 days post-inoculation, from stems, leaves and roots, and at 60 days post-inoculation one of the isolates was also recovered as an epiphyte. Fusarium sp., Rhodotorula sp., and four bacterial morpho-species were also detected, indicating these were present as endophytes in the seed. |
