Morphological and molecular identification of Entomopathogenic fungi from agricultural and forestry crops

Abstract

A promising alternative for insect pest control in agriculture is the use of entomopathogenic fungi. The objectives of this work were to isolate and identify morphologically and molecularly strains of entomopathogenic fungi from crops of agricultural and forestry interest for the development of insect biocontrol technologies in Argentina. Three strains of Beauveria bassiana, and two strains of Metarhizium anisopliae were isolated and morphologically identified. Identity values greater than 99% with strains of B. bassiana and M. anisopliae were obtained in molecular databases. It was also confirmed by phylogenetic methods that the sequences obtained from these strains were positioned within the clade that contained the sequences of reference of B. bassiana and M. anisopliae respectively. These results deepen the knowledge of the mycobiota of Argentinian crops as a basis for the development of biotechnological products in the area of biological control.