Entomopathogenic fungi from Argentina for the control of Schistocerca cancellata (Orthoptera: Acrididae) nymphs: fungal pathogenicity and enzyme activity.

PELIZZA SEBASTIAN ALBERTO; ELIADES LORENA ALEJANDRA; SCORSETTI ANA CLARA; CABELLO MARTA NOEMI; LANGE CARLOS ERNESTO

BIOCONTROL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2012 vol. 22 p. 1119 - 1129

0958-3157

The South American locust Schistocerca cancellata (Serville) was the most serious agricultural pest in Argentina during the first half of the last century and remains as a threat when preventive control measures are relaxed in the outbreak area. In this study, we analyzed in the laboratory the effectiveness of 26 fungal strains (isolated from both insects and soil collected in Argentina) for S. cancellata control and determined the relationship between the chitinase, protease, and lipase levels in these fungi and their insecticidal activities. We observed that Beauveria bassiana (isolate LPSC 1067) caused the highest mortality (90 + 1.03 %), the highest values ​​of chitinolytic, proteolytic and lipolytic activity were 6.13 + 0.05; 2.56 + 0.11, and 2.33 + 0.47, respectively and a the lowest median lethal time was 5.96 days. This is the first time that a wide variability in chitinase, protease and lipase activity as well as in virulence has been reported in a representative sample of different entomopathogenic fungal strains from Argentina.