Eilenberg, Jørgen

Gross, Jürgen

Görg, Luisa M.

Jensen, Annette H.

English

JKI Open Journal Systems (Julius Kühn-Institut)

11th Young Scientists Meeting 2018, Braunschweig, Germany, November 14-16 Görg et al. Novel detected entomopathogenic fungus Pandora sp. infects Cacopsylla spp. and other phloem-feeding hemipteran insects  Louisa M. Görg1, Annette H. Jensen2, Jørgen Eilenberg2 and Jürgen Gross11 Julius Kühn Institute, Institute for Plant Protection in Fruit Crops and Viticulture, Dossenheim 2 University of Copenhagen, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Denmark  E-mail of corresponding author: louisa.goerg@julius-kuehn.deThe entomopathogenic fungus Pandora sp. (Entomophthorales: Entomophthora-ceae) was discovered on psyllids in Den-mark in September 2016. Reisolated from pear psyllid cadavers, it was possi-ble to cultivate the fungus on solid media. In pathogenicity tests, it was assessed whether this (yet undescribed) species would be able to infect other insects, with special regard to psyllids (Hemip-tera: Psyllidae). In the pathogenicity ex-periments, insects were inoculated with a “conidia shower”. For this purpose, my-celia mats were applied to the lid of small plastic cups, using the typical mecha-nisms of Entomophthorales, which ac-tively eject their conidia and showering on the insects underneath. A not yet quantified but high dosage of conidia was used. After exposure to the conidia, the mortality as well as postmortal symp-toms of fungal infection were assessed over a period of 10 days. Cacopsylla pyri L. and C. pyricola Foer-ster, which are indigenous pear psyllids in Germany, were successfully infected. Other psyllids, namely C. picta Foerster and C. pruni Scopoli that cause great damage in fruit production by transmit-ting phytoplasma diseases to their re-spective host plants apple or peach, werealso susceptible to this fungus. When in-oculated with Pandora sp. mortality in-creased and symptoms of the fungal in-fection on the cadavers were observed 24 hours after onset of mortality. Other psyllids were also susceptible like C. peregrina Foerster feeding on haw-thorn (Crataegus monogyna L.). Further-more, other phloem-feeding hemipteraninsects such as Acyrthosiphon pisum Har-ris (Hemiptera: Aphididae) vectoring sev-eral plant viruses, showed decreased sur-vival probabilities after treatment withthis entomopathogenic fungus. Regard-ing these results, the role of Pandora sp.as a potential agent for a biological pestcontrol approach is a part of the BMEL-supported research project “PICTA KILL”.An innovative formulation should be de-veloped releasing specific attractant vol-atiles in order to attract the apple psyllidC. picta towards the encapsulated fungus(Attract-and-Kill- strategy). Hence, thecapsule could increase the specificity ofthis control approach and thereby de-crease the new infestation of apple treeswith apple proliferation disease.Berichte aus dem Julius Kühn-Institut 200 41

Novel detected entomopathogenic fungus Pandora sp. infects Cacopsylla spp. and other phloem-feeding hemipteran insects

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Novel detected entomopathogenic fungus Pandora sp. infects Cacopsylla spp. and other phloem-feeding hemipteran insects

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