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H2020Individual fellowship2018–2020

INMIfungi · Interactions of insect and soil microbial communities with insect pathogenic fungi

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2018-06-01 → 2020-05-31
EU contribution
€175,420
Participants
1
Scheme
MSCA-IF-EF-SE

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

Interactions of insect and soil microbial communities with insect pathogenic fungi

Metarhizium are arthropods-pathogen fungi found particularly in soils in diverse ecosystems all over the world. They are important antagonists of arthropods and have been widely used as biological control agents (BCA) to control pest insects in agriculture for decades. Presence, abundance and community structure of these fungi in the environment may depend on many abiotic (e.g. pH, organic matter- or nitrogen content) and biotic factors (e.g. host presence, plant- and microbial communities). Previous studies have demonstrated effects of some soil factors, e.g., pH or organic matter content, on Metarhizium communities in particular habitats, however, many of them with contradictory results. Furthermore, studies addressing Metarhizium occurrence and diversity mostly have focussed on differences on a field scale and investigation of these aspects on a low spatial scale are missing. The goal of this project was to assess to what extend abiotic factors as well as arthropod communities might explain Metarhizium community composition in particular soils or land-use types. Further exploitation of the potential of Metarhizium for pest control is important to provide alternatives to chemical pest control and to foster sustainable agriculture. A crucial base for the achievement of this goal is to enlarge and elaborate our ecological knowledge and to understand how environmental factors drive community development of these important antagonists of arthropods. This knowledge may open up approaches that can be used to regulate these fungi and make use of their function as regulators of arthropod populations particularly in an agricultural context.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Entomopathogenic fungi belong to the most important antagonists of arthropods in soil. Due to their antagonistic function, entomopathogenic fungi have a great potential for us in biological control of insect and mite pests. However, knowledge on how abundance and diversity of these fungi is affected by environmental factors is limited. While a number of studies have assessed effects of abiotic factors, effects of biotic factors such as microbial and arthropod communities have remained largely unassessed. The goal of this project is to investigate the interactions of microbial and arthropod communities with the entomopathogenic fungal genera Metarhizium and Beauveria and how abundance and diversity of the two genera might be affected by the two biotic factors. Analyses will be performed in soils obtained from 30 sites representing three habitat types with different management intensities (crop, grassland, forest) in Switzerland. Multilocus SSR-marker genotyping and high-throughput amplicon sequencing will be used to assess genetic diversity of Metarhizium spp. and Beauveria spp. and microbial and arthropod diversity in the soil samples. Multivariate statistics will be applied to investigate correlations among different abiotic and biotic factors and Metarhizium and Beauveria abundance and diversity.The project will provide novel insight on how entomopathogenic fungal populations interact with soil biota and fill important knowledge gaps. It will provide basic data to further exploit their use for biological pest control, a significant factor for implementation of sustainable agriculture. Experiments planned will involve state-of-the-art NGS technology and require further adaptation of the technology for application in an area in which its use has been limited. In addition, the project has a strong training component for the applicant including acquisition of up-to-date methods and the opportunity to develop research leadership and professional maturity.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • EIDGENOESSISCHES DEPARTEMENT FUER WIRTSCHAFT, BILDUNG UND FORSCHUNG · BernCoordinatorSwitzerland

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union