Identification and environment-friendly biocontrol potential of five different bacteria against Aphis punicae and Aphis illinoisensis (Hemiptera: Aphididae)

Alaa Baazeem; Saqer S Alotaibi; Luaay Kahtan Khalaf; Uttam Kumar; Madiha Zaynab; Sarah Alharthi; Hadeer Darwish; Akram Alghamdi; Suresh Kumar Jat; Amal Al-Barty; Bander Albogami; Ahmed Noureldeen; Balasubramani Ravindran

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2022.961349

Identification and environment-friendly biocontrol potential of five different bacteria against Aphis punicae and Aphis illinoisensis (Hemiptera: Aphididae)

Front Microbiol. 2022 Oct 25:13:961349. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.961349. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biology, College of Science, Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Biotechnology, College of Science, Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia.
³ Department of Plant Protection, College of Agricultural Engineering Science, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq.
⁴ College of Plant Protection, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China.
⁵ Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Marine Bioresource and Eco-environmental Sciences, College of Life Sciences and Oceanography, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Department of Plant Protection, College of Horticulture and Forestry, Agriculture University, Kota, India.
⁸ Department of Environmental Energy and Engineering, Kyonggi University, Suwon, South Korea.
⁹ Department of Medical Biotechnology and Integrative Physiology, Institute of Biotechnology, Saveetha School of Engineering, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Thandalam, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

Abstract

The current work is aimed at isolating and identifying new Entomopathogenic bacterium (EPB) strains associated with Steinernema feltiae and assessing the EPB's biocontrol potential on Aphis punicae and Aphis illinoisensis adults in the laboratory. From S. feltiae, five bacterial isolates were isolated and molecularly characterized. Lysinibacillus xylanilyticus strain TU-2, Lysinibacillus xylanilyticus strain BN-13, Serratia liquefaciens strain TU-6, Stenotrophomonas tumulicola strain T5916-2-1b, and Pseudochrobactrum saccharolyticum strain CCUG are the strains. Pathogenicity tests demonstrated that bacterial cells were more toxic against the two aphid species than bacterial cell-free supernatants. S. tumulicola strain T5916-2-1b cells and filtrate were reported to have the strongest potential to kill A. punicae and A. illinoisensis individuals within 6 h after treatment, with 100% mortality of both insects 24 and 48 h after treatment. Based on the results of the study, it looked like endogenous Steinernema-associated EPB could be used directly as a biocontrol agent for A. punicae and A. illinoisensis.

Keywords: Aphis illinoisensis; Aphis punicae; biological control; entomopathogenic bacteria; molecular identification.