English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

White grubs in the genus  Phyllophaga  are serious pest affecting many crops including maize. Entomopathogenic fungi are among the most promising biological control agents against white grubs. We hypothesised that there would be a temporal and/or spatial succession of entomopathogenic fungal species present in populations of  Phyllophaga  larvae throughout a maize crop season. Therefore, in order to assess the taxonomic and genetic diversity of fungal pathogens, we undertook a two-year field study sampling  Phyllophaga  larvae on maize crops at 11 localities from Mexico on a monthly basis, from August to December in 2019 and July to November in 2020. Entomopathogenic fungi infecting  Phyllophaga  larvae were isolated and identified to species level based on partial Bloc and Elongation Factor 1-α sequences. Genetic variation in the most abundant species was assessed by AMOVA and Haplotype network analyses. In total, we collected 3198  Phyllophaga  larvae. Four  Phyllophaga  species were identified:  Phyllophaga ravida  Blanchard,  P. polyphylla  Bates,  P. integriceps  Mocer and  P. vetula  Horn. From the total larvae collected, 124 were infected by  Beauveria  and 15 by  Metarhizium . Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the majority of the isolates were from the species  Beauveria pseudobassiana  and  Metarhizium pingshaense . The Analysis of Molecular Variance (AMOVA) showed that neither year of collection nor sampling locality had a significant effect on genetic variation among  B. pseudobassina  isolates. However, haplotype network analysis identified two separate networks, each containing mostly isolates from 2019 and 2020 respectively. We discuss the potential effect of abiotic factors on infection levels found in  Phyllophaga  larvae.

Dynamics of natural infection of white grub larvae by Beauveria and Metarhizium in maize crops from Mexico