Bioexploration and phylogenetic placement of entomopathogenic fungi of the genus beauveria in soils of lebanon cedar forests

Charbel Al Khoury*, Georges Nemer, Richard Humber, Nehme El-Hachem, Jacques Guillot, Racha Chehab, Elise Noujeim, Yara El Khoury, Wadih Skaff, Nathalie Estephan, Nabil Nemer*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The cedar forests of Lebanon have been threatened by the outbreak caused by climate change of a web-spinning sawfly, Cephalcia tannourinensis (Hymenoptera: Pamphiliidae), which nega-tively impacted the survival of one of the oldest tree species on earth. In this study, we investigated the occurrence of naturally soil-inhabiting entomopathogenic fungi for their role in containing the massive outbreak of this insect. We used a combination of fungal bioexploration methods, includ-ing insect bait and selective media. Morphological features and multilocus phylogeny—based on Sanger sequencing of the transcripts encoding the translation elongation factor 1-alpha (TEF-α), RNA polymerase II second largest subunit (RBP2), and the nuclear intergenic region (Bloc) were used for species identification. The occurrence rate of entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) varied with location, soil structure, forest structure, and isolation method. From 15 soil samples positive for fungal occurrence, a total of 249 isolates was obtained from all locations using different isolation methods. The phylogenetic analysis confirmed the existence of two novel indigenous species: Beauveria tannourinensis sp. nov. and Beauveria ehdenensis sp. nov. In conclusion, the present survey was successful (1) in optimizing the isolation methods for EPF, (2) investigating the natural occurrence of Beauveria spp. in outbreak areas of C. tannourinensis, and (3) in characterizing the presence of new Beauveria species in Lebanese cedar forest soil.

Original languageEnglish
Article number924
JournalJournal of Fungi
Volume7
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2021

Keywords

  • Beauveria ehdenensis
  • Beauveria tannourinensis
  • New-taxa
  • Phylogeny
  • Soil-bioexploration

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