Characterization of a novel baculovirus isolate from Malacosoma neustria (Linnaeus, 1758) (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae) in Samsun and its pathogenicity in different hosts

Abstract

Malacosoma neustria (Linnaeus, 1758) (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae) causes economic losses in apple, pear, plum, willow, oak and other economically important trees. In this study, an Alphabaculovirus was isolated from the larval population of M. neustria from Samsun in the central Black Sea Region of Turkey between 2015 and 2016. Electron microscope analysis of occlusion bodies (OBs) obtained from dead larvae showed that the nucleocapsids of a new isolate (ManeNPV-T4) are multiply enveloped. The Kimura two-parameter analysis and the phylogenetic tree were performed based on concatenated nucleotide and amino acid sequences of the partial lef-8, lef-9 and polh genes from ManeNPV-T4 isolate compared to those of other 51 baculoviruses. Insecticidal activity tests against third instar M. neustria larvae produced 48 to 100% mortalities. The LC50 of ManeNPV-T4 was 0.78 x 10(3) OBs/ml in M. neustria. Additionally, the isolate caused mortalities lower than 50% in Spodoptera exigua (Hubner, 1808) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), Lymantria dispar (Linnaeus, 1758) (Lepidoptera: Erebidae), Hyphantria cunea (Drury, 1773) (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae) and Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner, 1805) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) larvae. Consequently, the new nucleopolyhedrovirus is infectious on M. neustria larvae and other lepidopterans.