Seed inoculations with entomopathogenic fungi affect aphid populations coinciding with modulation of plant secondary metabolite profiles across plant families

What is it about?

The widely recognized environmental risks associated with chemical pesticides for insect pest control have encouraged the development of biological alternatives such as the use of living organisms. Entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) have shown great bio-control potential against arthropod herbivores as direct pathogens or as plant endophytes by living inside plant tissues. The effects of EPF endophytes on insect herbivores have been widely studied, but the mechanisms behind these effects are not documented. Here we studied that how seed inoculations with three different fungal isolates effect aphid population growth, profiles of plant secondary metabolites and plant growth in wheat and bean host plants. Interestingly, different fungal isolates showed different behavior by either significantly enhancing or reducing the population growth of aphids across plant families. The profiles of plant secondary metabolites correlated with herbivore population growth even with low colonization rates by EPF isolates, supporting the notion of indirect effects. Overall, the research reported in this thesis opens new insights into the effects of EPF endophytes on plant physiology to cause ecological effects against herbivores. The study provides a link between the ecological effects and the physiological responses of plants caused by EPF inoculations which may have implications in plant protection strategies. The understanding of plant physiological changes by beneficial fungi are important for future applications of EPF for herbivore management.

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