Abstract
Ambrosia beetles are insect vectors of important plant diseases and have been considered as a threat to forest ecosystems, agriculture, and the timber industry. Several factors have been suggested as promoters of the pathogenic behavior of ambrosia beetles; one of them is the nature of the fungal mutualist and its ability to establish an infectious process. In Mexico, Xylosandrus morigerus is an invasive ambrosia beetle that damages many agroecosystems. Herein, two different isolates from the X. morigerus ambrosia beetle belonging to the Fusarium genus are reported. Both isolates belong to the Fusarium solani species complex (FSSC) but not to the Ambrosia Fusarium clade (AFC). The two closely related Fusarium isolates are pathogenic to different forest and agronomic species, and the morphological differences between them and the extracellular protease profile suggest intraspecific variability. This study shows the importance of considering these beetles as vectors of different species of fungal plant pathogens, with some of them even being phylogenetically closely related and having different pathogenic abilities, highlighting the relevance of the fungal mutualist as a factor for the ambrosia complex becoming a pest.
Highlights
Published: 26 February 2022An insect–fungus mutualism is an interaction that implies a reciprocal influence where each species provides mutual benefits such as dispersal, protection and nutrition [1]
Based on the results described above, these isolates were considered as members of the genus Fusarium belonging to the Fusarium solani species complex (FSSC)
FSSC, a multilocus sequence analysis based on the tef 1, internal transcribed spacer region of rDNA (ITS), large subunit of the rDNA (LSU) and rpb2 sequences was against the Fusarioid-ID database [42] were similar to those of FSSC 12a NRRL 46705, with
Summary
Published: 26 February 2022An insect–fungus mutualism is an interaction that implies a reciprocal influence where each species provides mutual benefits such as dispersal, protection and nutrition [1]. The supply of nutrients by a partner can be direct, by serving them as food, or indirect, by providing digestible compounds or detoxifying a food source They protect each other against environmental variations, competitors and/or natural enemies, and the dispersal aspect is clearly a benefit for the fungus, since it is a sessile organism and uses the insect as vector for its spores or propagules [1]. Bark and ambrosia beetles (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) have been adopted as a model of evolutionary ecology and phytopathology since they have emerged as a threat to forests and agricultural areas. Among these beetles, there are 16 hypothesized origins of fungus
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