Colonization of Metarhizium anisopliae on the surface of pine tree logs: a promising biocontrol strategy for the Japanese pine sawyer, Monochamus alternatus

Publication date: Available online 26 December 2019Source: Fungal BiologyAuthor(s): Jong Cheol Kim, Sehyeon Baek, So Eun Park, Sihyeon Kim, Mi Rong Lee, Minsung Jo, Jae Seong Im, Panjung Ha, Jae Su Kim, Tae Young ShinAbstractWe investigated the colonization potential of five Metarhizium anisopliae isolates on pine tree surfaces under laboratory conditions, determined the influence of the pine bark extract on fungal growth and evaluated the insecticidal activity following colonization on the Japanese pine sawyer. Finally, the effect of colonization on adults pine sawyer was evaluated using the top three performing isolates (JEF-197, JEF-271 and JEF-279) under laboratory and field conditions. As a result, isolate JEF-197 showed the highest conidial production on the pine surfaces, and five isolates, including JEF-197, showed higher hyphal growth on autoclaved pine bark extract agar, compared to a water agar. Pine bark treated with the isolates showed 40-70% mortality of adults pine sawyer. To investigate the fungal spray on the pine tree log where the fourth instar larvae were artificially inserted to mimic overwintering in damaged trees. In the untreated control, 80% of the population emerged. However, isolate JEF-197 treatment, 40% of the population emerged and all adults were dead in 59 days. In a field test, colonized isolate JEF-197 also showed 37% insecticidal activity against emerged adults from the pine logs as overwintering sites. This work suggests that M. anisopliae ...
Source: Fungal Biology - Category: Biology Source Type: research