RESUMO
The efficacy of the two entomopathogenic biocontrol agents, Steinernema feltiae (Filipjev) and Lecanicillium muscarium (Petch), against juvenile Thrips palmi Karny in the laboratory situation is well documented. This study investigated the extrapolation of this knowledge to the control of adult stages. S. feltiae caused significantly higher mortality to juvenile T. palmi than to adult stages, whereas L. muscarium had a more significant impact on adult stages. The potential to develop an IPM strategy to control T. palmi utilising the two entomopathogens is discussed.
Assuntos
Hypocreales/patogenicidade , Controle de Insetos , Insetos/parasitologia , Controle Biológico de Vetores/métodos , Rabditídios/patogenicidade , Fatores Etários , Animais , Hypocreales/fisiologia , Insetos/microbiologia , Rabditídios/fisiologiaRESUMO
Potato tuber necrotic ringspot disease (PTNRD) is a damaging disease of potatoes, causing unsightly necrotic rings on the surface of tubers. The causal agent is thought to be tuber necrotic isolates of Potato virus Y, known as PVY(NTN). The disease spoils tubers for processing and table use, and the lack of a diagnostic method makes control especially difficult. The development of an RT-PCR assay for the reliable detection of PVY(NTN) and discrimination of all the main strains of PVY (PVY(O), PVY(N) and PVY(C)) is described. An assay was developed, exploiting a recombination site in the coat protein of PVY(NTN), allowing more reliable diagnosis of these isolates. Although the conserved nucleotide differences observed between the strains was very small, competitive PCR and mutagenically separated PCR were both employed in the development of a robust assay. The assay was found to be more reliable than the most commonly used RT-PCR method, and should prove to be an important tool in the confirmation of symptoms and for the detection of PVY(NTN) in symptomless tissue, in disease surveys and seed health schemes.
