Evaluation of the potential of blastospores and conidia of Beauveria bassiana and Isaria fumosorosea for the control of important soybean pests

• Grant number: 16/21387-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2017
• End date: December 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Plant Health
• Principal Investigator: Italo Delalibera Júnior
• Grantee: Bianca Corrêa
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Soybean is one of the most important crops for the Brazilian agribusiness. Its production is negatively affected by important insect pests, especially the whitefly Bemisia tabaci (biotype B) and defoliating caterpillars. For the control of caterpillars, the utilization of genetically modified plants with genes of the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) has been adopted in a large scale, however, the recent detection of resistant insect populations to Bt plants has been a big worry. Baculovirus and Bt base biopesticides has been used efficiently for the caterpillars Helicoverpa armigera and Anticarsia gemmatalis, but the same doesn´t occur for Spodoptera frugiperda and Chrysodeixis includens. Recently, several companies registered products based on the entomopathogenic fungi Beauveria bassiana for the control of whitefly and three companies started the registration process of Isaria fumosorosea for the same pest. A possible alternative for caterpillar control is the utilization of these fungi that are already used for the control of whiteflies. The products in the Brazilian market are based on aerial conidia produced by solid fermentation. There aren´t until this moment products based on blastospores in Brazil, propagules that can be produced by liquid fermentation and have demonstrated high virulence to several pests. The objective of the project is to compare the virulence of blastospores and conidia of preselected isolates of the fungi B. bassiana e I. fumosorosea to the pests S. frugiperda, C. includens e B. tabaci. (AU)