Detection of the pathogenic fungus in the soil-rearing environment based on nucleic acid targets.

an entomopathogenic fungus, infects and leads to high mortality of larvae, which die soon after the infection of , usually before the colonization of owing to competitive inhibition and fruiting body formation. Therefore, monitoring in the cultivation environment is critical for minimizing the infection-induced losses. In this study, we initially designed a PCR primer pair (Tar-1F/Tar-1R) through open reading frame prediction and homology comparison of the genome sequence. This primer pair can detect both and . To further distinguish, primers (ITS5-172/ITS4-95) were then designed to selectively amplify the large ribosomal subunit sequences in the genome. All these primers were applied in combination for detection of in soil samples. The sensitivity reached a detection limit of 1 × 10 spores/g soil. In addition, these primers can detect the presence of in dead larval samples. This newly established rapid detection method provides important information for control during cultivation.