Newly Isolated Paecilomyces lilacinus and Paecilomyces javanicus as Novel Biocontrol Agents for Plutella xylostella and Spodoptera litura

Abstract

Biocontrol offers an attractive alternative to the use of chemical pesticides in agricultural pest management. The development of high levels of resistance to chemical pesticides have forced researchers to find more alternative biological control agents. The aims of this study were to isolate Paecilomyces spp. with high virulence against diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) and Oriental leafworm moth (Spodoptera litura), and to investigate suitable agro-industrial residues as a substrate used for solid state fermentation for sporulation of isolates. In this study, Paecilomyces spp. were isolated from soil and insects and identified by morphological and sequencing analyses. The pathogenicity of these isolates was evaluated on Pl. xylostella and S. litura to identify strains with the highest virulence. In addition, agro-industrial residues were used as a cheap substrate for investigating a suitable medium for sporulation on an industrial scale. Six strains of Paecilomyces spp. were isolated including one strain of P. lilacinus and five strain of P. javanicus. P. lilacinus PL01 showed the highest virulence against both Pl. xylostella and S. litura with respective LT 50 values of 2.51 and 7.09 days. The five isolated P. javanicus strains also strongly infected Pl. xylostella with LT 50 values of 2.52~6.59 days. For sporulation, brown rice alone or brown rice mixed with rice husks and wheat bran or rice bran was suitable for cultivating these isolates. Two newly isolated species of Paecilomyces, P. lilacinus and P. javanicus, can be used as biological control agents for controlling Pl. xylostella and S. litura.

Identification of a new Cordyceps javanica fungus isolate and its toxicity evaluation against Asian citrus psyllid

“…have been reported to control different insect pests, but only a few studies have reported the pathogenicity of C. javanica against D. citri (Faria & Wraight, ; Gandarilla‐Pacheco, Galán‐Wong, López‐Arroyo, Rodríguez‐Guerra, & Quintero‐zapata, ; Medina‐Córdova, Rosales‐Mendoza, Hernández‐Montiel, & Angulo, ; Meyer, Hoy, & Boucias, ; Vega et al, ). Nguyen et al () isolated two highly virulent strains of C. javanica against diamondback moth Plutella xylostella with respective LT 50 values of 2.52 and 2.55 days.…”

Paecilomyces and Its Importance in the Biological Control of Agricultural Pests and Diseases

“…Paecilomyces is capable of parasitizing fungi [ 71 ], nematodes and arthropods [ 72 , 73 ]. After recognition and pathogen-antagonist interaction take place, penetration and/or secretion of enzyme complexes occurs, leading to antagonist growth at the expense of its host [ 74 , 75 ].…”

“…Numerous orders of arthropods that are vulnerable to the use of Paecilomyces spp. ( Table 3 ), including hemiptera, have been described, such as aleurodids [ 246 ], aphids [ 238 ], thysanoptera [ 242 ], diptera [ 247 ], lepidoptera [ 73 ], hymenoptera [ 248 ] and coleoptera [ 235 ].…”

Matrine Enhances the Pathogenicity of Beauveria brongniartii Against Spodoptera litura (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

“…Entomopathogenic fungi are promising agents in regulation populations of S. litura (Chaudhari et al, 2016; Nguyen et al, 2017; Namasivayam et al, 2018; Sahayaraj et al, 2018; Kaur et al, 2019; Yang et al, 2019). Fungi belonging to genus Beauveria (Hypocreales: Cordycipitaceae) are one of the most common insect pathogenic fungal species, which can act as an alternative to pesticides against S. litura (Borja et al, 2018; Dhar et al, 2019; Yang et al, 2019).…”