Abstract
In Algeria, Culex pipiens is the most important mosquito species due to its wide geographical distribution, abundance and nuisance. This specie transmits multiple arboviruses such as the West Nile virus and encephalitis virus that have a global impact on human health. Multiple strategies are adopted for its control including elimination of mosquito breeding sites, by improving water storage and solid waste disposal, as well as treating breeding sites with biological or chemical larvicidal components. This study reports the isolation, morphological and molecular characterization as well as virulence of five entomopathogenic fungi strains, from Algerian soils, against 3rd instar larvae of Cx. pipiens. Based on morphology and ITS sequences, all fungal strains were assigned to genus Purpureocillium including three P. lavendulum strains (RS10B, RS7 and RS5 under the GenBank accession numbers MW426500, MW426502 and MW426503, respectively) and two P. lilacinum strains (RS10A and MICH1 under the GenBank accession numbers MW426501 and OL614981, respectively). These two species were reported for the first time in Algeria and until now, no study have reported the virulence of P. lavendulum against Cx. pipiens. Furthermore, the strains were tested for their efficacy against 3rd instar larvae of Cx. pipiens at 1 × 106, 1 × 107 and 1 × 108 conidia/mL concentration under laboratory conditions. Among these strains, RS10A and RS10B were the most effective strains due to their relatively low LC50, LT50 and LT90 values. These results indicated that these two entomopathogenic fungi strains have potential as biocontrol agents of Cx. pipiens.
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Abbreviations
- BLAST:
-
Basic Local Alignment Search Tool
- ITS:
-
Internal Transcribed Spacer
- LC:
-
Lethal Concentration
- LT:
-
Lethal Time
- MEGA:
-
Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis
- NCBI:
-
National Centre for Biotechnology Information
- PCR:
-
Polymerase Chain Reaction
- PDA:
-
Potato Dextrose Agar
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Algeria. We thank the late and ex director of the LBSM laboratory, Prof. N. Sabaou, for great help in isolation and morphological identification of entomopathogenic fungi.
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R.O., F.S–H. and Z.H. conceived and managed the project. R.O. and R.S. performed the experiments and manuscript drafting. R.O. and H.A.B analysed the data. R.O., A.M., A.M. and C.V-V., performed molecular analysis. R.O and S.C.B. managed the rearing of the mosquitoes. N.B. supervised and corrected draft manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
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Taleb, R.O., Sahir-halouane, F., Harrat, Z. et al. Isolation and characterization of five Purpureocillium strains from Algerian soils and assessment of their larvicidal activity against Culex pipiens (Diptera, Culicidae). Biologia 78, 505–513 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-022-01253-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-022-01253-x