An updated of Entomophthoromycota fungi pathogens of insects from Argentina

LÓPEZ LASTRA CLAUDIA C.; MANFRINO ROMINA G.; GUTIÉRREZ ALEJANDRA C. ; TOLEDO ANDREA V.; EILENBERG JORGEN; JENSEN ANNETTE B.

Lima

Congreso; IX Congreso latinoamericano de Micología; 2017

Entomophthoralean fungi have been scarcely studied in Argentina, and so far only 16 out of 240 known species of entomophthorales have been recorded in agricultural pests like aphids, or sanitary insect vectors as houseflies. The objective of this study was to update the knowledge of entomophthoralean species diversity and their geographical distribution in Argentina. Infected insects and mite pests were surveyed from horticultural, soybean and cereal crops from Buenos Aires, Corrientes, Entre Ríos and Santa Fe provinces. Fungal characterization was made using morphological features such as nuclei number per conidium, diameters of conidia and nuclei, and presence/absence of rhizoids, cystidia and resting spores. Also, we realized their molecular characterization by PCR on three loci: the internal transcribed spacer 1 region (ITS 1), the first part of the 28s rRNA gene also called large subunit rRNA (LSU) and Nuclear Small Subunit Ribosomal DNA Sequences (SSU rDNA). A few of 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 Zoophthora radicans, who were found infecting insect hosts belonging to the orders Diptera, Hemiptera, Lepidoptera and Thysanoptera from Pampasic and Litoral regions of Argentina. These new records did not only increase the host range of entomophthoralean fungi, but also they gave new insights about the geographical distribution of theses fungi.