An updated of Entomophthoromycota fungi pathogens of insects from Argentina

LÓPEZ LASTRA, C.C.; TOLEDO, A.V.; GUTIÉRREZ, A.C.; JENSEN, A.B.; MANFRINO, R.G.; EILENBERG, J.

Lima

Simposio; . IX Congreso Latinoamericano de Micología; 2017

Asociación Latinoamericana de Micología

Entomophthoralean fungi have been scarcely studied inArgentina, and so far only 16 out of 240 known speciesof entomophthorales have been recorded in agricultural pests like aphids, or sanitaryinsect vectors as houseflies. The objective of this study was to update theknowledge of entomophthoralean species diversity and their geographicaldistribution in Argentina. Infected insects and mite pests were surveyed fromhorticultural, soybean and cereal crops from Buenos Aires, Corrientes, Entre Ríos and Santa Fe provinces. Fungal characterization was made usingmorphological features such as nuclei number per conidium, diameters of conidiaand nuclei, and presence/absence of rhizoids, cystidia and resting spores.Also, we realized their molecular characterization by PCR on three loci: theinternal transcribed spacer 1 region (ITS 1), the first part of the 28s rRNAgene also called large subunit rRNA (LSU) and Nuclear Small Subunit Ribosomal DNA Sequences (SSU rDNA). A fewof the species were isolated in pure cultures and deposited at culture collections.We documented seven new host-pathogen relationships including the fungi Conidiobolus sp., Entomophthora sp. and Zoophthoraradicans, who were found infecting insect hosts belonging to the ordersDiptera, Hemiptera, Lepidoptera and Thysanoptera from Pampasic and Litoralregions of Argentina. These new records did not only increase the host range ofentomophthoralean fungi, but also they gave new insights about the geographicaldistribution of theses fungi.