Beauveria bassiana (Hypocreales: Clavicipitaceae) Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) Repel Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Coleoptera: Dryophthoridae)

Johari Jalinas; Federico Lopez-Moya; Frutos C Marhuenda-Egea; Luis Vicente Lopez-Llorca

doi:10.3390/jof8080843

Beauveria bassiana (Hypocreales: Clavicipitaceae) Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) Repel Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Coleoptera: Dryophthoridae)

J Fungi (Basel). 2022 Aug 11;8(8):843. doi: 10.3390/jof8080843.

Authors

Johari Jalinas^{1

2

3}, Federico Lopez-Moya¹, Frutos C Marhuenda-Egea^{2

4}, Luis Vicente Lopez-Llorca^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Plant Pathology, Department of Marine Sciences and Applied Biology, University of Alicante, 03080 Alicante, Spain.
² Multidisciplinary Institute for Environmental Studies (MIES), University of Alicante, 03080 Alicante, Spain.
³ Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Selangor 43600, Malaysia.
⁴ Department of Agrochemistry and Biochemistry, University of Alicante, 03080 Alicante, Spain.

Abstract

The entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana (Bb) is used to control the red palm weevil (RPW) Rhyncophorus ferrugineus (Oliver). Beuveria bassiana can infect and kill all developmental stages of RPW. We found that a solid formulate of B. bassiana isolate 203 (Bb203; CBS 121097), obtained from naturally infected RPW adults, repels RPW females. Fungi, and entomopathogens in particular, can produce volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs from Bb203 were analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). GC-MS identified more than 15 VOCs in B. bassiana not present in uninoculated (control) formulate. Both ethenyl benzene and benzothiazole B. bassiana VOCs can repel RPW females. Our findings suggest that B. bassiana and its VOCs can be used for sustainable management of RPW. They could act complementarily to avoid RPW infestation in palms.

Keywords: Beauveria bassiana; Rhynchophorus ferrugineus; insect repellent; volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation AGL2015-66833-R project, the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, and the Malaysia Ministry of Higher Education. Project was also partially supported by MUSA project (727624). The results of this paper have been filed for a Spanish Patent (P201631534).