Vol. 12, Special Issue 11 (2023)

Author(s):
N Harika, M Visalakshi, D Anil Kumar and V Chandra Sekhar

Abstract:
Indigenous entomopathogenic fungi isolated from soils of Eastern Ghats in Alluri Sitharama Raju district, Andhra Pradesh during 2022-23 and characterized based on morphological and mplecular techniques. About 50 soil samples were collected from different habitats in (rice fields, plantations, orchards and vegetable fields) in five mandals Chinthapalli, Araku valley Vantlamamidi, Lambasingi and Paderu Isolated the entomopathogenic fungi from soil samples using serial dilution method and inoculated on Sabouraud dextrose agar yeast (SDAY) media. Morphological identification of grown fungal isolates were identified as Beauveria bassiana under microscope based on the hyphae branching, conidiophores, and colour of the sporulation. Molecular characterization was done through PCR specific ITS regions of the entomopathogenic fungi which confirmed the isolates as Beauveria bassiana by the NCBI-BLAST analysis of partial genome sequence amplified by ITS1 and ITS4. The ITS generated sequences were deposited in the NCBI Gene Bank database and accession numbers were obtained for five isolates of indigenous entomopathogenic fungi Beauveria bassiana as (Chinthapalli isolate- OR342367-Bb AKP-C Ia; Vantlamamidi isolate -OR35216- Bb AKP-V IIIa; Araku valley isolate-OR345217- Bb AKP-A IVb; Lambasingi isolate- OR345218- Bb AKP-L IIa and Paderu isolate-OR345219 -Bb AKP-P IIb). Using MEGA software (Version.10.0), a phylogenetic tree was constructed by considering most reference sequences from the NCBI with sequences of Beauveria bassiana isolates to study the evolutionary relationship between different isolates.