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Nature 09/2012; 489(7417):502. · 36.28 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Aspergillus oryzae NRRL 35191 was isolated as an endophyte from coffee leaves and found to produce kojic acid (KA) in culture. When inoculated
into cacao seedlings (Theobroma cacao), A. oryzae grew endophytically and synthesized KA in planta. Cacao seedlings inoculated with A. oryzae produced higher levels of caffeine than non-inoculated ones. Aspergillus oryzae may be a useful endophyte to introduce to cacao since it grows non-pathogenically and induces the caffeine defense response
that may make the plant more tolerant to insects and pathogens.
Keywords
Aspergillus oryzae
–Cacao–Coffee–Endophyte–Kojic acid
Mycological Progress 04/2012; 11(1):263-267. · 1.55 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The fungal entomopathogen Beauveria bassiana became established as an endophyte in coffee seedlings grown in vitro and inoculated with B. bassiana suspensions in the radicle. The fungus was recovered as an endophyte 30 and 60 days postinoculation, from stems, leaves,
and roots, and at 60 days postinoculation one of the isolates was also recovered as an epiphyte. Fusarium sp., Rhodotorula sp., and four bacterial morpho-species were also detected, indicating these were present as endophytes in the seed.
Mycoscience 04/2012; 47(5):284-289. · 1.21 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Three experiments were conducted to determine the influence of number of coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae), females (one, two, or five) reared in artificial diet on fecundity and subsequent development of larvae, pupae, and adults. Our results demonstrated that increasing female density from one to two or five individuals did not result in the expected two- or five-fold increase in progeny, despite ample food resources available. Instead, decreased fecundity was observed with increasing density for all experiments. The mechanism reducing fecundity was not identified, but possibly, volatiles are being produced (e.g., host-marking pheromones). The decrease in fecundity may explain why infestations of only one colonizing female per berry are the norm in the field.
Journal of Economic Entomology 02/2011; 104(1):87-93. · 1.70 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The negative effects of climate change are already evident for many of the 25 million coffee farmers across the tropics and the 90 billion dollar (US) coffee industry. The coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei), the most important pest of coffee worldwide, has already benefited from the temperature rise in East Africa: increased damage to coffee crops and expansion in its distribution range have been reported. In order to anticipate threats and prioritize management actions for H. hampei we present here, maps on future distributions of H. hampei in coffee producing areas of East Africa. Using the CLIMEX model we relate present-day insect distributions to current climate and then project the fitted climatic envelopes under future scenarios A2A and B2B (for HADCM3 model). In both scenarios, the situation with H. hampei is forecasted to worsen in the current Coffea arabica producing areas of Ethiopia, the Ugandan part of the Lake Victoria and Mt. Elgon regions, Mt. Kenya and the Kenyan side of Mt. Elgon, and most of Rwanda and Burundi. The calculated hypothetical number of generations per year of H. hampei is predicted to increase in all C. arabica-producing areas from five to ten. These outcomes will have serious implications for C. arabica production and livelihoods in East Africa. We suggest that the best way to adapt to a rise of temperatures in coffee plantations could be via the introduction of shade trees in sun grown plantations. The aims of this study are to fill knowledge gaps existing in the coffee industry, and to draft an outline for the development of an adaptation strategy package for climate change on coffee production. An abstract in Spanish is provided as Abstract S1.
PLoS ONE 01/2011; 6(9):e24528. · 4.09 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Coffee (Coffea arabica) plant tissues were surface-sterilized and fungal endophytes isolated using standard techniques, followed by DNA extraction and sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS). A total of 843 fungal isolates were recovered and sequenced (Colombia, 267; Hawai'i, 393; Mexico, 109; Puerto Rico, 74) yielding 257 unique ITS genotypes (Colombia, 113; Hawai'i, 126; Mexico, 32; Puerto Rico, 40). The most abundant taxa were Colletotrichum, Fusarium, Penicillium, and Xylariaceae. Overall, 220 genotypes were detected in only one of the countries sampled; only two genotypes were found in all four countries. Endophytes were also isolated from Coffea canephora, Coffea congensis, Coffea liberica, Coffea macrocarpa, Coffea racemosa, and Coffea stenophylla in Hawai'i. The high biodiversity of fungal endophytes in coffee plants may indicate that most of these are “accidental tourists” with no role in the plant, in contrast to endophytes that could be defined as “influential passengers” and whose role in the plant has been elucidated. This study, the most comprehensive analysis of fungal endophytes associated with a single host species, demonstrates that coffee plants serve as a reservoir for a wide variety of fungal endophytes that can be isolated from various plant tissues, including the seed, and illustrates the different fungal communities encountered by C. arabica in different coffee-growing regions of the world.
Fungal Ecology 03/2010; · 2.51 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei, is the most important pest of coffee throughout the world, causing losses estimated at US $500 million/year. The thrips Karnyothrips flavipes was observed for the first time feeding on immature stages of H. hampei in April 2008 from samples collected in the Kisii area of Western Kenya. Since the trophic interactions between H. hampei and K. flavipes are carried out entirely within the coffee berry, and because thrips feed by liquid ingestion, we used molecular gut-content analysis to confirm the potential role of K. flavipes as a predator of H. hampei in an organic coffee production system. Species-specific COI primers designed for H. hampei were shown to have a high degree of specificity for H. hampei DNA and did not produce any PCR product from DNA templates of the other insects associated with the coffee agroecosystems. In total, 3,327 K. flavipes emerged from 17,792 H. hampei-infested berries collected from the field between April and September 2008. Throughout the season, 8.3% of K. flavipes tested positive for H. hampei DNA, although at times this figure approached 50%. Prey availability was significantly correlated with prey consumption, thus indicating the potential impact on H. hampei populations.
Naturwissenschaften 03/2010; 97(3):291-8. · 2.28 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), is the most important coffee pest worldwide. Beauveria bassiana is a generalist entomopathogenic fungus widely used by coffee farmers to control this pest and Phymastichus coffea LaSalle (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) is an African endoparasitoid of H. hampei adults, recently imported to several Latin American and Caribbean countries to aid in the coffee berry borer control. The objective of this study was to determine if B. bassiana is detrimental to P. coffea. The susceptibility of the parasitoid was evaluated in terms of adult survivorship, mean lethal concentration (LC50), mean lethal time (LT50), reproduction and immature mortality. The main effect of the fungus resulted in reduction of adult longevity and mortality of 100% for immature stages of this parasitoid. The LC50 for adults was 0.11% equivalent to 9.53 x 10(7) conidia/ml of B. bassiana and a LT50 of 29.4h, equivalent to reduction of 22% of its normal longevity as an adult. P. coffea was capable of disseminating spores of B. bassiana to non-infected H. hampei adults, which could indirectly cause the death of its own progeny. These results could be valuable when considering the use of both organisms in the field, especially in an integrated pest management program.
Neotropical Entomology 03/2009; 38(5):665-70. · 0.60 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The coffee berry borer (CBB) Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) was accidentally introduced into México in 1978, and rapidly became the main pest of coffee. As an exotic pest, its management has been mainly based on biological control methods through the introduction of parasitoids from Africa. In this context, at the beginning of the present decade, the parasitoid Phymastichus coffea LaSalle (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) was imported to Mexico. Since then, several studies have been carried out as part of the post introduction evaluation of this parasitoid. In this paper, information concerning the parasitism and life-cycle of P. coffea in coffee farms is presented with the objective of providing information that elucidates its role as a biological control agent. P. coffea showed highly significant preferences for allocation of two eggs per host, usually one female and one male. Both offspring are able to develop and reach the adult stage successfully. Lifespan of adults is 2-3 days only. The degree of parasitism by P. coffea was more than 95% at the three altitudes tested, when releases consisted of a ratio of 10 CBB:1 parasitoid. The median survivorship of CBB parasitized by this wasp was 13, 15 and 19 days at the low, medium and high altitude coffee zones, respectively. The parasitism by P. coffea was higher when parasitoid releases were carried out simultaneously with the CBB, and decreased with the time between host and parasitoid releases. We showed that using P. coffea at a density of 1 parasitoid per 10 hosts resulted in a 3- to 5.6-fold decrease in CBB damage to the coffee seeds when compared to the control. The importance and value of these results are discussed in terms of the use of P. coffea as a biological control agent of the CBB in Latin America.
03/2009;
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ABSTRACT: The coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari), is the most devastating insect pest of coffee throughout the world. Adult females bore a hole in the coffee berry, where they deposit their eggs; upon hatching, larvae feed on the coffee seeds inside the berry, thus reducing yield and quality of the marketable product. The insect spends most of its life inside the coffee berry, making it extremely difficult to control. This paper presents a short review of the literature dealing with natural enemies of the coffee berry borer, on the possible use of fungal endophytes as a biocontrol strategy, and on factors that might be involved in attracting the insect towards the coffee plant. The paper identifies some areas where research efforts should be focused to increase the chances of successfully developing an effective pest management strategy against the coffee berry borer.
03/2009;
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ABSTRACT: Coffee is predicted to be severely affected by climate change. We determined the thermal tolerance of the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei, the most devastating pest of coffee worldwide, and make inferences on the possible effects of climate change using climatic data from Colombia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. For this, the effect of eight temperature regimes (15, 20, 23, 25, 27, 30, 33 and 35 degrees C) on the bionomics of H. hampei was studied. Successful egg to adult development occurred between 20-30 degrees C. Using linear regression and a modified Logan model, the lower and upper thresholds for development were estimated at 14.9 and 32 degrees C, respectively. In Kenya and Colombia, the number of pest generations per year was considerably and positively correlated with the warming tolerance. Analysing 32 years of climatic data from Jimma (Ethiopia) revealed that before 1984 it was too cold for H. hampei to complete even one generation per year, but thereafter, because of rising temperatures in the area, 1-2 generations per year/coffee season could be completed. Calculated data on warming tolerance and thermal safety margins of H. hampei for the three East African locations showed considerably high variability compared to the Colombian site. The model indicates that for every 1 degrees C rise in thermal optimum (T(opt.)), the maximum intrinsic rate of increase (r(max)) will increase by an average of 8.5%. The effects of climate change on the further range of H. hampei distribution and possible adaption strategies are discussed. Abstracts in Spanish and French are provided as supplementary material Abstract S1 and Abstract S2.
PLoS ONE 02/2009; 4(8):e6487. · 4.09 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: La técnica AFLP fue usada para generar huella dactilares genéticas examinando la variación genética y la biogeografia de la plaga mas importante del cultivo del café, Coffea arabica L., la broca del café Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari). Muestras de H. hampei (n = 101) provenientes de 17 países en tres continentes fueron examinadas. Solo 26 huellas dactilares (haplotipos) fueron descubiertas. La variación genética fue extremadamente baja (10% promedio de polimorfismos por muestra), pero la diferenciación genética fue alta (ΦST = 0.464). La distribución de las huellas dactilares y la relación genética entre ellas sugirieron que una población originaria del Oeste de Africa que debió haber invadido tanto Asia como América. Tres lineas genéticas distintas entraron a las Américas, ya sea a través de la introducción independiente de varias lineas o a la introducción única de lineas multiples. Al menos dos lineas fueron inicialmente introducidas al Brasil y posteriormente se dispersaron por todas las Américas. La tercera linea fue decubierto solo en Perú y Colombia. Estas observaciones fueron consistentes con la alta tasa de endogamia con la que se sospecha que este insecto posee. Si esto es cierto, algunas mutaciones no deseadas, asi como aquellas que confieren resistencia a insecticidas, podrían volverse homozigóticas rápidamente. Sin embargo, la baja variación genética observada también podría estar sugiriendo que esta plaga carece de la variación genética necesaria para responder a una estrategia de control intensiva.
Annals of the Entomological Society of America 01/2009; · 1.32 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: A nested polymerase chain reaction protocol yielded positive detection of the maternally inherited cytoplasmic proteobacterium Wolbachia in total genomic DNA from coffee berry borers collected in Benin, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Uganda. Wolbachia was not detected in specimens from Cameroon, the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Jamaica, and Peru. Amplified bands from India and Brazil were cloned and sequenced. The 438-bp sequence clearly conformed to Wolbachia group B and was nearly identical to that of Ephestia kuehniella. The possible implications of Wolbachia infection in the coffee berry borer are discussed.
Annals of the Entomological Society of America 01/2009; · 1.32 Impact Factor
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Leo H. Shapiro,
Sonja J. Scheffer,
Navies Maisin,
Smilja Lambert,
Hussin Bin Purung,
Endang Sulistyowati, Fernando E. Vega,
Paul Gende,
Samson Laup,
Ade Rosmana,
Sylvia Djam,
Prakash K. Hebbar
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ABSTRACT: Conopomorpha cramerella (Snellen) (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) is a devastating pest of cacao, Theobroma cacao L. (Sterculiaceae), in Southeast Asia, particularly in the Malay Archipelago. We surveyed genetic variation at two unlinked loci, mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) and nuclear elongation factor-1α (EF-1α), in C. cramerella from throughout most of their known geographic range. Given the enormous area sampled, COI variation is extremely low; EF-1α variation may be low as well, but this is more difficult to assess due to the lack of appropriate data sets for comparison. Our results strongly suggest that sampled C. cramerella populations have experienced at least one bottleneck in their recent past, although the possibility that COI variation has been reduced by a selective sweep cannot be excluded based on available data. We suggest that one or more bottlenecks likely occurred when C. cramerella from an as yet unknown source population, either within or outside the Malay Archipelago, became established on cacao, which is not endemic to this region (Conopomorpha is an Old World genus and cacao originated in the New World). Identification of the source of this pest could be important in efforts to identify natural enemies for biological control.
Annals of the Entomological Society of America 01/2009; · 1.32 Impact Factor
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Fernando E Vega
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ABSTRACT: Fungi that occur inside asymptomatic plant tissues are known as fungal endophytes. Different genera of fungal entomopathogens have been reported as naturally occurring fungal endophytes, and it has been shown that it is possible to inoculate plants with fungal entomopathogens, making them endophytic. Their mode of action against insects appears to be due to antibiosis or feeding deterrence. Research aimed at understanding the fungal ecology of entomopathogenic fungi, and their role as fungal endophytes, could lead to a new paradigm on how to successfully use these organisms in biological control programs.
Journal of Invertebrate Pathology 08/2008; 98(3):277-9. · 2.06 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Fungal endophytes are quite common in nature and some of them have been shown to have adverse effects against insects, nematodes, and plant pathogens.Our research program is aimed at using fungal endophytes-mediated plant defense as a novel biological control mechanism against the coffee berry borer, the most devastating pest of coffee throughout the world. A survey of fungal endophytes in coffee plants from Hawaii, Colombia, Mexico, and Puerto Rico has revealed the presence of various genera of fungal entomopathogens, including Acremonium, Beauveria, Cladosporium, Clonostachys, and Paecilomyces. Two of these, B. bassiana and Clonostachys rosea, were tested against the coffee berry borer and were shown to be pathogenic. This paper reviews the possible mode of action of entomopathogenic fungal endophytes.
Biological Control 03/2008; · 2.00 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana was established in coffee seedlings after fungal spore suspensions were applied as foliar sprays, stem injections, or soil drenches. Direct injection yielded the highest post-inoculation recovery of endophytic B. bassiana. Establishment, based on percent recovery of B. bassiana, decreased as time post-inoculation increased in all treatments. Several other endophytes were isolated from the seedlings and could have negatively influenced establishment of B. bassiana. The recovery of B. bassiana from sites distant from the point of inoculation indicates that the fungus has the potential to move throughout the plant.
Mycological Research 07/2007; 111(Pt 6):748-57. · 2.81 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: A phylogenetic epidemiological study of Beauveria bassiana s.l. was conducted for African and Neotropical pathogens of the coffee berry borer (CBB), Hypothenemus hampei, based on inferences from two nuclear intergenic regions, EFutr and Bloc. CBB pathogens were distributed among four terminal clades, however, the majority of African and Neotropical isolates cluster in a well-supported monophyletic group, informally designated AFNEO_1. Although the relationship between African and Neotropical AFNEO_1 is unresolved, the majority of alleles detected were exclusive to either the African or the Neotropical populations. These fixed genetic differences suggest that their disjunction predates the world trade in coffee. Neotropical AFNEO_1 have a broad host range and CBB pathogens are intermixed phylogenetically with isolates from diverse indigenous insects. Several Neotropical AFNEO_1 isolates were isolated from coffee plants as epiphytes or endophytes, thus plants themselves may potentially serve as reservoirs of pathogens against their insect pests. Topological incongruence between the EFutr and Bloc phylogenies of Neotropical AFNEO_1 may signify that individuals within this population are recombining.
Journal of Invertebrate Pathology 10/2006; 93(1):11-21. · 2.06 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The insect parasitoid Prorops nasuta has been introduced from Africa to many coffee-producing countries in an attempt to control the coffee berry borer. In this paper, we report on the sequencing of the ITS LSU-rDNA and beta-tubulin loci used to identify a fungus isolated from the cuticle of a P. nasuta that emerged from coffee berries infected with the coffee berry borer. The sequences were compared with deposits in GenBank and the fungus was identified as Aspergillus westerdijkiae. The fungus tested positive for ochratoxin A production, with varying levels depending on the media in which it was grown. These results raise the possibility that an insect parasitoid might be disseminating an ochratoxin-producing fungus in coffee plantations.
Naturwissenschaften 07/2006; 93(6):297-9. · 2.28 Impact Factor
