Diversity of entomopathogenic Hypocreales in soil and phylloplanes of five Mediterranean cropping systems

- Differences in diversity of entomopathogenic Hypocreales among Mediterranean cropping systems.
- The same isolates can be present in soil and phylloplane.
- Species richness, diversity and evenness seem related with human disturbance.
- Soil as possible source of entomopathogenic fungi and the subsequent dispersion to phylloplane.
- Some isolates could be true epiphytes.

The diversity of entomopathogenic Hypocreales from the soil and phylloplanes in five Mediterranean cropping systems with different degrees of management [organic olive orchard conventional olive orchard, holm oak reforestation, holm oak dehesa (a multifunctional agro-sylvo-pastoral system), and sunflower plantation] was studied during four seasons. A total of 697 entomopathogenic fungal isolates were obtained from 272 soil samples, 1608 crop phylloplane samples and 1368 weed phylloplane samples. The following nine species were identified: Beauveria amorpha, B. bassiana, B. pseudobassiana, B. varroae, Metarhizium brunneum, M. guizhoense, M. robertsii, Paecilomyces marquandii and lilacinum using EF-1α gene sequences. All the fungal entomopathogenic species were found in both the soil and phylloplane samples, with the exception of M. robertsii, which was only isolated from the soil. The species richness, diversity (Shannon-Wiener index) and evenness (Pielou index) were calculated for each cropping system, yielding the following species ranking, which was correlated with the crop management intensity: holm oak reforestation > organic olive orchard > conventional olive orchard > holm oak dehesa > sunflower plantation. The number of fungal species isolated was similar in both phylloplane habitats and dissimilar between the soil and the crop phylloplane habitats. The ISSR analysis revealed high genotypic diversity among the B. bassiana isolates on the neighbourhood scale, and the isolates were clustered according to the habitat. These results suggest that the entomopathogenic Hypocreales in the phylloplane could result from the dispersal of fungal propagules from the soil, which might be their habitat of origin; a few isolates, including EABb 09/28-Fil of Beauveria bassiana, inhabit only the phylloplane.