Dose, temperature and formulation shape Metarhizium anisopliae virulence against the oriental fruit fly: lessons for improving on-target control strategiesuse asterix (*) to get italics

Anais Chailleux, Oumou N. Coulibaly, Babacar Diouf, Samba Diop, Ahmad Sohel, Thierry BrevaultPlease use the format "First name initials family name" as in "Marie S. Curie, Niels H. D. Bohr, Albert Einstein, John R. R. Tolkien, Donna T. Strickland"

2024

<p>​Entomopathogenic fungi are a promising tool for the biological control of crop pests provided low or no impact on non-target organisms. Selection for host specificity as well as on-target applications open new avenues for more sustainable strategies for pest management. Isolates of Metarhizium anisopliae (Metschn.) Sorokin have been identified as promising for developing innovative entomovectoring-based strategies for the control of the oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) (Diptera: Tephritidae), in Africa. To be effective, this technology requires high strain virulence at a low number of spores, but sufficient incubation time to allow transmission to wild conspecifics. This depends on trophic interactions between the host and the pathogen, which are mediated by abiotic factors.</p> <p>In the present study, we investigated the virulence of the Met69 strain against adult flies, depending on the inoculation dose, air temperature and formulation. High pathogenicity was observed at very low inoculation doses (LT50 of 4.85 days with 6100 spores per fly) independently of fly sex. Virulence increased with spore load in a tight range (5600 and 6100 spores per fly) and with air temperature observed in the field (20-28°C). Unexpectedly, corn starch used as an adjuvant to increase the carrying capacity of insects decreased the virulence of the pathogen.</p> <p>The results will help improve area-wide control strategies based on the contamination of wild flies through auto-inoculation devices or interactions with released mass-reared sterile males coated with fungal spores. Furthermore, the study proposes an approach for calibrating area-wide control strategies, taking into account both the insect and pathogen bioecology and the environment in which they evolve.​​​​​​</p>

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Metarhizium anisopliae, Bactrocera dorsalis, entomovector technology, auto-dissemination, boosted SIT, pest management.

NonePlease indicate the methods that may require specialised expertise during the peer review process (use a comma to separate various required expertises).

Biocontrol, Insecta, Pest management

Tobin Northfield [tnorthfield@wsu.edu] suggested: I'm sorry, I just agreed to review other articles at the same time and can't take on another. I would suggest Jana Lee (jana.lee@usda.gov).

e.g. John Doe john@doe.com

No need for them to be recommenders of PCI Zool. Please do not suggest reviewers for whom there might be a conflict of interest. Reviewers are not allowed to review preprints written by close colleagues (with whom they have published in the last four years, with whom they have received joint funding in the last four years, or with whom they are currently writing a manuscript, or submitting a grant proposal), or by family members, friends, or anyone for whom bias might affect the nature of the review - see the code of conduct

2023-12-18 11:59:30

Kévin Tougeron