Metabarcoding versus mapping unassembled shotgun reads for identification of prey consumed by arthropod epigeal predators.

Background: A central challenge of DNA gut content analysis is to identify prey in a highly degraded DNA community. In this study, we evaluated prey detection using metabarcoding and a method of mapping unassembled shotgun reads (Lazaro).

Results: In a mock prey community, metabarcoding did not detect any prey, probably owing to primer choice and/or preferential predator DNA amplification, while Lazaro detected prey with accuracy 43-71%.

Field Efficacy of Metarhizium rileyi Applications Against Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in Maize.

The efficacy of the fungus Metarhizium rileyi (Farlow) Kepler, S. A. Rehner & Humber (Hypocreales: Clavicipitaceae) against the fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda (J.

Phytoseiid mites (Acari: Mesostigmata: Phytoseiidae) from Mato Grosso State, Central-Western Brazil.

The aim of the present study was to conduct a survey of mites of the family Phytoseiidae associated with plants of the natural vegetation and cultivated forests in sites of three biomes (Amazon Forest, Cerrado and Pantanal) in the Mato Grosso State. Twenty-one species of 11 genera, of the three phytoseiid subfamilies were registered. Amblyseius Berlese was the most diverse genus, with five species.

Growth variation among Bacillus thuringiensis strains can affect screening procedures for supernatant-secreted toxins against insect pests.

Background: Supernatant-secreted proteins in Bacillus thuringiensis (Berliner) (Bt) with insecticidal activity provide an important source of information for discovery of new useful strains and/or entomotoxins. However, physiological variation among isolates might interfere in the detection efficiency of screening procedures on Bt collections. The aim of this study was to assess the magnitude of this variation in a sample of isolates from a tropical Bt collection, which was gauged through the assessment of their temporal patterns of growth and protein secretion in culture supernatants (SNs), as well as of the corresponding toxicity against fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda, JE Smith).

Diversity in antifungal activity of strains of Chromobacterium violaceum from the Brazilian Amazon.

Chromobacterium violaceum is a free-living Gram-negative bacterium found in soil and aquatic habitats; abundantly present in the Brazilian Amazon, it is an important example of exploitable microbial diversity of the tropics. In this study, 24 strains from the Brazilian Amazon and ATCC 12472(T) were investigated for biocontrol potential of seven fungi pathogenic to soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merril] seed.

[Association of bioassays and molecular characterization to select new Bacillus thuringiensis isolates effective against Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)].

The fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith), is one of the main corn pests and Bacillus thuringiensis is important in its control because of its entomopathogenic property.