Conidiobolus macrosporus (Entomophthorales), a mosquito pathogen in Central Brazil
Cristian Montalva1, Luiz F N Rocha2, Éverton K K Fernandes3
1Instituto de Patologia Tropical e Saúde Pública, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil; Facultad de Ciencias, Instituto de Bioquímica y Microbiología, Casilla 167, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile.
Abstract:
A new fungal pathogen of Culicinae (Diptera: Culicidae) adults, Conidiobolus macrosporus (Entomophthorales: Ancylistaceae), was detected and isolated during a survey of mosquito pathogens close to the city of Aruanã, Goiás State, in December 2014. The morphological characteristics of C. macrosporus are presented, and reasons for some uncertainty about this identification are discussed. The pathogenicity and high virulence of this fungus for Aedes aegypti were confirmed in laboratory conditions. Mortality of adults exposed to conidia was observed within 24h of exposure to the pathogen, and increased to 100% as quickly as 3days after inoculation (with the highest conidial concentration tested, 8.3×10(4)conidia/cm(2)). Repeated attempts to obtain genomic sequence data failed despite confirmations that the DNA extraction methods were themselves successful.
