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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Ithaca, New York » Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture & Health » Emerging Pests and Pathogens Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #374333
Research Project: Management and Biology of Arthropod Pests and Arthropod-borne Plant Pathogens

Location: Emerging Pests and Pathogens Research

Title: Morphological and molecular characterization of Entomophthorales (Entomophthoromycota: Entomophthoromycotina) from Argentina

Author
item MANFRINHO, ROMINA - Center For Studies Of Parasites And Vectors, Cepave
item Castrillo, Louela
item LOPEZ-LASTRA, CLAUDIA - Center For Studies Of Parasites And Vectors, Cepave
item TOLEDO, ANDREA - National University Of Laplata
item FERRARI, WALTER - Center For Studies Of Parasites And Vectors, Cepave
item JENSEN, ANNETTE - University Of Copenhagen

Submitted to: Acta Mycologia
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/26/2020
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Entomopathogenic fungi are important biotic factors that can regulate field populations of insect pests under ideal environmental conditions. Among entomopathogenic fungi, most members of the order Entomophthorales are relatively host-specific, with little or no possible threat to non-target organisms, making them ideal biological control agents. In this study, 17 entomophthoralean fungi associated with different insect hosts in Argentina were characterized using a combination of morphological characters and comparisons of DNA sequences of defined genomic loci. These data are useful in furthering knowledge on the phylogeny, ecology and host range of entomophthoralean fungi.

Technical Abstract: We characterized seventeen insect-pathogenic entomophthoralean fungi (Entomophthoromycotina: Entomophthorales) using morphological and molecular techniques. We identified four species from various insect hosts: 1) Entomophthora planchoniana, six specimens from aphids; 2) Pandora neoaphidis, three specimens from aphids; 3) Zoophthora phalloides from an aphid, and 4) Z. radicans, seven specimens from insects in the orders Diptera, Hemiptera and Lepidoptera. Analysis of the ITS data for E. planchoniana showed clustering in accordance to aphid-host species. Entomophthora planchoniana from Macrosiphum euphorbiae clustered together, separate from the isolate from Myzus persicae. The P. neoaphidis specimens clustered with other aphid pathogenic Pandora sp. sequences available in the Genbank database. In this study, Z. phalloides from Brevicoryne brassicae and Z. radicans from an unidentified species of Chironomidae (Diptera) in Argentina were characterized for first time. The present study was initiated to elucidate the taxonomy of the entomophthoralean fungi in Argentina using a combination of morphological characters and gene sequence data. The data presented further emphasize the significance of molecular data in entomophthoralean taxonomy and the combination of such data with information on morphology, ecology and host range for accurate identification of entomophthoralean species and allied genera.