Trapping Entomopathogenic Fungi from Vine Terroir Soil Samples with Insect Baits for Controlling Serious Pests

Abstract

Fungi are eukaryotic microorganisms with many forms and certain demands about the soil they colonize, which reveal the conditions that prevail therein. Although they can often kill pests without damaging plants or humans, they are not widely used as pesticides as they are not easy to handle and require much time before they act. Nevertheless, insects can be used as baits to trap these entomopathogenic fungi, giving information about their distribution within the terroir. The purpose of this study was to investigate the soil distribution of entomopathogenic fungi species in soil samples from two vine soil terroirs. Nine fungi were identified in total, but M. anisopliae and B. bassiana showed the greatest frequency, which was expressed by difference in adult bait mortality among species. These fungi had not been previously documented in vine terroirs.

Beauveria bassiana Endophytic Strain as Plant Growth Promoter: The Case of the Grape Vine Vitis vinifera

“…In previous studies, the B. bassiana strain GHA was used as an endophyte for V. vinifera plants [ 14 , 30 ]. In our study, we tested the native strain of B. bassiana H2S32 an endophyte, which was isolated from the soil of an organic V. vinifera cultivation in Achaia, Greece, using T. confusum as bait [ 54 ]. To deem an experiment of this type successful, three criteria must be met: colonization of plants by the endophytes, symptomless physiology of the endophyte plants, and a positive effect on the growth of the plant after colonization.…”

“…Sideritis plantation using the Tribolium confusum (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) Jacquelin du Val bait method [53]. More specifically, soil samples had been collected from the vine terroirs of the Krokidas Winery in the prefecture of Achaia [54]. Fresh conidia were collected from the SDA cultures after 15 days and transferred to a 500 mL glass beaker with 100 mL sterile distilled water containing 0.05% Tergitol NP9.…”

Phenotypic, molecular, and virulence characterization of entomopathogenic fungi, Beauveria bassiana (Balsam) Vuillemin, and Metarhizium anisopliae (Metschn.) Sorokin from soil samples of Ethiopia for the development of mycoinsecticide

“…Environmentally sound insect pest management strategies critically require the continuous isolation and identification of proper bio-control agents from farmland and forest soil based on the insect bait method (Mantzoukas et al, 2020b). Accordingly, a total of 65 (54.2%) entomopathogenic fungal isolates belongs to Beauveria spp and Metarhizium spp were identified based on morphological and cultural characteristics using galleria baiting method.…”

“…Generally, the present study recognized superior germination percentage (99.67%) rated by isolate AAUKB-11 whereas the radial growth rate (3.43 mm day À1 ) and sporulation (4.60 Â 10 8 sporse/ml) attained with isolate AAUMFB-77. In entomopathogenic fungi, fast conidia germination, radial growth (Dotaona et al, 2015), and high sporulation rates (Mar et al, 2012) are pathogenicity determinates that positively correlated with fungal virulence. Therefore, screening of entomopathogenic fungi by germination, radial growth, and sporulation parameters could be paramount important to determining high virulent isolates.…”

“…Isolation of Entomopathogenic fungi is frequently based on insect bait method using Galleria mellonella larvae from soils (Mantzoukas et al, 2020b) and insect cadavers (Meng et al, 2017), of which insect bait using G. mellonella is a very sensitive detection method. Besides in vitro characterization of entomopathogenic fungi through germination, radial growth and sporulation parameters are important in defining the virulence of fungal isolate (Islam et al, 2014).…”