Pheromone baited biopesticide for control of Leucinodes orbonalis Guenee in brinjal plant.

Leucinodes orbonalis Guenee, Brinjal fruit and shoot borer (BFSB), is the major pest on brinjal world wide. Larvae of this pest cause the damage; which at initial stages adversely affect the shoot growth, and in later stages diminish fruit quality. Spraying of insecticides is the main pest control method. This has been absolutely ineffective due to concealed habit of the larvae. Such a phenomenon apprehends to the development of insecticides resistance which demands continuously increasing doses. Manipulating the insect behavior using semiochemicals could be an opportunity for better management of insect pest. Application of BFSB sex pheromone components (E)-11-hexadecenyl acetate (E11-16: Ac) alone or in combination with (E)-11-hexadecen-1-ol (E11-16: OH) in traps can be used to suppress the populating growth. Goal-oriented interdisciplinary research on semiochemicals for sound administration of BFSB will depend on a better understanding of the key chemical ecology stimuli of relevance to the pest.

Molecular phylogeny and bioprospecting of Endolichenic Fungi (ELF) inhabiting in the lichens collected from a mangrove ecosystem in Sri Lanka.

Endolichenic fungi (ELF) are unexplored group of organisms as a source for the production of bioactive secondary metabolites with radical scavenging activity, antilipase and amylase inhibitory activities. Endolichenic fungi in lichens collected from mangrove or mangrove associated plants are least known for their fungal diversity and potential to produce bioactive compounds. A total of 171 ELF strains were isolated from the lichens collected from mangrove and mangrove associated plants in Puttalam lagoon. Out of this collection, 70 isolates were identified using rDNA-ITS region sequence homology to the GenBank accessions and a phylogenetic analysis was performed. Commonly isolated genera of ELF from lichens were Aspergillus, Byssochlamys, Talaromyces, Diaporthe, Phomopsis, Endomelanconiopsis, Schizophyllum, Cerrena, Trichoderma, Xylaria, Hypoxylon, Daldinia, Preussia, Sordaria, Neurospora, and Lasiodiplodia. In the present study, the effectiveness of ethyl acetate extracts of the ELF isolates were investigated against antioxidant activity, antilipase activity and α-amylase inhibition activity in in-vitro conditions. The results revealed that the extracts of Daldinia eschscholtzii, Diaporthe musigena and Sordaria sp. had the highest radical scavenging activity with smaller IC50 values (25 µg/mL to 31 µg/mL) compared to the IC50 values of BHT (76.50±1.47 µg/mL). Antilipase assay revealed that 13 extracts from ELF showed promising antiobesity activity ranged between 25% to 40%. Amylase inhibitory assay indicated that the test extracts do not contain antidiabetic secondary metabolites.