Plant-mediated vulnerability of an insect herbivore to Bacillus thuringiensis in a plant-herbivore-pathogen system |
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Authors: | Maryam Jafary Hossein Farazmand Mohammadreza Rezapanah |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, Arak Branch, Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran;2. Department of Agricultural Entomology, Iranian Research Institute of Plant Protection, AREEO, Tehran, Iran;3. Department of Biological Control, Iranian Research Institute of Plant Protection, AREEO, Tehran, Iran |
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Abstract: | Laboratory studies were performed to explore the effects of host-plant quality on the vulnerability of Plutella xylostella to Bacillus thuringiensis. P. xylostella were kept on different host plants, including Brassica pekinensis (Chinese cabbage) cv. Hero, Brassica oleracea var. botrytis (cauliflower) cv. Royal, and B. oleracea var. capitata (common cabbage) cv. Globe Master (white cabbage) and cv. Red Dynasty (red cabbage) for at least two generations. These host plants are considered as the high (Chinese cabbage), intermediate (cauliflower and white cabbage) and low-quality (red cabbage) hosts for P. xylostella. The vulnerability of the pest larvae was then tested using two formulation of B. thuringiensis var. kurstaki, including Biolarv® and Biolep®. The results demonstrated that the susceptibility of P. xylostella to B. thuringiensis was influenced by host-plant quality. Indeed, B. thuringiensis acted better on the pest fed on the low-quality host plant compared with that on the high-quality host plant. The interaction between the pathogen and plant quality/resistance resulted in more mortality of the pest larvae, implying a synergistic effect. From a pest management viewpoint, these findings may be promising for the integration of the pathogen and the low-quality/partially resistant host plants against P. xylostella in field studies. |
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Keywords: | Plutella Bacillus host plant tritrophic bottom-up sustainable strategies |
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