MOLECULAR AND BIOLOGICAL IDENTIFICATION OF METARHIZIUM ANISOPLIAE EG016 AS POTENTIAL BIOCONTROL AGENT INFECTED SPODOPTERA EXIGUA AGAINST SPODOPTERA LITTORALIS (LEPIDOPTERA: NOCTUIDAE)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Plant Protection Research Institute, ARC, Giza, Egypt

2 Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Benha University, Egypt

3 Agricultural Microbiology Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain-Shams University, Egypt

Abstract

entomopathogenic Merarhizium fungus infects and kills insect pests in the green house and is used as agent in biological control. In this study, it was isolated from naturally infected pupae of Spodoptera exiguae which known to infest cabbage plants. The infection resulted in color change, malformation, cell death as well as fungal mycelium growth. Metarhizium sp. was isolated from infected pupae on SDYA Sabouraud dextrose yeast extract agar specific medium and showed fully colonies with round shape on medium. The fungus was isolated from pure single colony on SYDA medium by hyphal tip method. The purified isolate was identified based on morphological characteristics including hyaline and branched conidiophore,formation of a sporulating layer,single phialides or in pairs, conidia produced in chains, compacted into columns and long-ovoid to cylindrical shape was observed. Pathogenicity potential was 66.8% after 12 days of treatment. The molecular identification was conducted via 18srDNA gene amplification (335 bp PCR product resulted) and sequencing recorded in gene bank M. anisopliae EG016 (KU965593) isolate.

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