Entomopathogenic Nematodes a Potential Microbial Biopesticide: Mass Production and Commercialization Status-A Mini Review (original) (raw)
Related papers
Archives of Phytopathology and Plant Protection, 2011
Parasitic nematodes have several important attributes that make them excellent candidates for biological control of soil insects. These nematodes can be produced by in vivo by baiting technique on insects and commercially by in vitro solid/liquid culturing. Numerous insect pests on many different crops are being controlled by these insect parasitic nematodes, including root weevils, flea beetles, mint root borer, colorado potato beetle, white grubs, caterpillars and plant parasitic root nematode, e.g. root-knot nematodes. Utilisation of entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN) has raised intense interest and has been a growing concern globally mainly because of its potential efficiency, exemption from registration and other impressive attributes for utilising against the control of soil dwelling pests. This review highlights the mass production, commercialisation and utilisation of EPN as microbial biopesticide in bio-intensive pest management programmes.
A REVIEW ON ROLE OF ENTOMOPATHOGENIC NEMATODES IN INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT
International Journal of Zoology and Applied Biosciences, 2022
Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs), which are microbial pathogens cum insect pest's biocontrol agents, have been used successfully in agricultural systems. They may be easily cultivated in vivo or in vitro and are extremely pathogenic, quickly killing their hosts. Due to their widespread production in liquid media, their production costs have recently decreased dramatically, while still being safe for the environment and non-target vertebrates. Additionally, there are no challenges in using EPNs because they can be coupled with practically all chemical control chemicals and are simple to spray using ordinary equipment. EPNs are frequently used to control economically significant insect pests in a variety of farming systems, including nurseries, greenhouses, turf grass, and fruit orchards. Only in the early 1980's did EPNs start to be used for biocontrol, and this needed a gradual advancement of both science and technology. The commercialization of nematode-based insect pest management was greatly aided by the nematode's mass production. This review paper discusses different species of EPNs, its Mass production and utilization in Integrated Pest Management program.
Entomopathogenic Nematodes in Pest Management
Integrated Pest Management (IPM): Environmentally Sound Pest Management, 2016
Naturally occurring entomopathogenic nematodes and their symbiotic bacteria are important biotic factor in suppression of insect pest populations in soil and cryptic habitats. The virulent species of these nematodes are commercially produced as biological control agents all over the world encompassing North America, Europe, Asia and Australia in glasshouse crops, orchards, ornamentals, turf, lawn, and forestry. India has a great potential to exploit these beneficial nematodes for the suppression of insect pests. Recent emphasis on mass production and formulation technologies of these nematodes in India stresses a need to implement safer and effective pest control methods. This article provides an overview of recent development on formulation and commercialization of entomopathogenic nematodes, and evaluates their potential exploitation in India.
Entomopathogenic Nematodes: Integrated Pest Management and New Vistas
Egyptian Journal of Agronematology
Despite the current use of entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) commercially, there are still new prospects for expanding their applications to occupy a prominent market position. Scientists, extension specialists and stakeholders need to identify and widely disseminate conditions under which EPN application can offer a cost-effective, value-added approach to integrated pest management. Moreover, EPN use should not be limited to plant pests. There are other pests that EPNs can effectively and safely control such as those that significantly affect health and production of farm animals and honey bees. Examples of such pests against which nematodes can be reliably applied and general precautions to be taken to optimize EPN operation are given. The wide host range of EPN and their mutualistic bacteria against arthropods and pathogens are promising for advantageous industrial products for boosting pest/disease management. Therefore, a full useful spectrum of the EPN-bacterium complex or the symbiotic bacterium individually should be harnessed for useful usage in current and emerging agricultural systems. Fitting symbiont-obtained insecticidal, acaricidal, nematicidal, pharmaceutical, fungicidal, antimicrobial, and toxic compounds into current or emerging strategies, for controlling many pests/pathogens should be earnestly sought.
Entomopathogenic nematode as a biocontrol agent – Recent trends – A Review
International Journal of Advanced Research in Biological Sciences (IJARBS), 2017
Safety and environmentalcal insecticide issues surrounding the use of chemical insecticides has led to an emphasis on developing alternative control measures such as entomopathogens and their products. Entomopathogenic nematodeare effective biopesticide which can be incorporated in IPM programs because they are considered non-toxic to humans, relatively specific to their target pests and can be applied with standard pesticide equipment. Entomopthogenic nematodes have proven to be the most effective as biological control organisms. Entomopathogenic nematodes have been released extensively in crop fields with negligible effects on non target insects and are regarded as exceptionally safe to the environment. Our focus in this paper was to review mechanism and pathogencity of nematode, phylogeny of nematode for Steinernematidae and Heterorhabditidae. Steinernematidae is represented by the genera Steinernema and Neosteinernema and Heterorhabditidae is represented by the genus Heterorhabditis. They are associated with mutualistic bacteria in the genus Xenorhabdus for Steinernema and Photorhabdus for Heterorhabditis. Thus, it is a nematode bacterium complex that works together as a biological control unit to kill an insect host by penetrating the host through natural opening and there by releasing the bacterial symbiont which spread and multiply in the haemolymph of the insect pest and kill them by septicemia. Infective juvenile entomopathogenic nematode locate their hosts in soil by means of two strategies-ambusing and crusing. Nematode employs different foraging strategies to locate and infect hosts. Genetic diversity may be lost, or genetic variation may have been limited during collection or lost during importation and rearing. A serious problem for EPNs is founder effect because only a limited number of insect cadavers are collected at single geographical sites, resulting in reduced genetic variance. EPNs have been most efficacious in habitats that provide protection from environmental extremes, especially in soil, which is their natural habitat and in cryptic habitats. Excellent control has been archived against plantboring insects because their cryptic habitats are favorable for nematode survival and infectivity. In developing biocontrol programs using EPNs, one mechanism to increase the chance of success is to screen novel nematode species or strains for potential efficacy against particular target pests.
Mass Production of Entomopathogenic Nematodes or Plant Protection-A Review
Chemical pesticides may cause secondary pest outbreaks, accelerate the development of resistance, destroy natural enemies and create hazards for human's poisonings and approximately twenty thousand deaths occurring annually due to pesticides. As a result, regulatory agencies in different countries have imposed restrictions on chemical pesticide usage. Biological control using predators, parasitoids or pathogens can be an effective measure in insect pest management. Research and development on biological control and insect pests has increased manifold during the past two decades and entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN's) have been developed as one of the tool in insect management. Already, the EPN based biopesticides occupy the major share in the biopesticide world, being second only to Bacillus thuringiensis. EPN's of the families Steinernematidae and Heterorhabditidae (Order: Rhabditida) are lethal parasites associated with symbiotic bacteria of the family Enterobacteriaceae. Steinernematids are associated with Xenorhabdus spp. and Heterorhabditids with Photorhabdus spp. EPN's can be mass produced by in vivo or in vitro methods. The use of EPN is safe for both the user and the environment.
Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 2016
Agricultural management practices can modify soil properties in ways that may disrupt the abundance and activity of beneficial organisms in the soil. We assessed the impact of different soil management practices on entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN), which have great potential as biological control agents against root-feeding insects. Soils were sampled during spring and autumn 2013 in all 96 plots of a long-term Swiss field trial (DOK experiment) in a seven-year grass-clover ley rotation. By combining a traditional insect-baiting technique and real-time qPCR analyses, we identified and quantified over 20 soil-dwelling species (or genera). This allowed us to investigate how communities of natural EPN populations and their associated natural enemies and competitors are affected by (i) three crop types (wheat, maize and grass-clover ley) and (ii) farming systems, i.e. conventional, organic and biodynamic, which differed in fertilization, and pesticide use. We also determined the effects on soils' microbial biomass in terms of carbon (C mic) and nitrogen (N mic) and applied spatial distribution analysis (SADIE) to uncover patterns of aggregations and associations of the study organisms. Although manure based farming systems increased microbial biomass, the systems did not influence the presence of EPN or their antagonists. EPN were more abundant in winter-wheat plots after potatoes than in maize and grass-clover ley plots. Overall, very low numbers of EPN were recorded, implying that their natural presence would not be sufficient to have a satisfactory suppressive effect on root-feeding pests and the application of EPN would therefore be an appropriate measure to protect yields in case of root pest outbreaks.
Role of entomopathogenic nematodes in the management of insect pests
2014
Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) of the genera Heterorhabditis and Steinernema are obligate and lethal insect parasites. They have the greater potential to be developed as a microbial agent for the management of various insect pests of orchard, vegetables, ornamental plants and turf grasses. The third stage juvenile i.e. the infective juvenile along with symbiotic bacteria (Xenorhabdus spp. in Steinernema spp. and Photorhabdus spp. in Heterorhabditis spp.) enters into the insect body through natural openings or sometimes by penetration through intersegmental membrane. The relationship between nematode and bacteria is an example of true mutualism and from this relation both the organisms are benefited. This nematode-bacterium complex causes the death of insect pests within 24–72 hours. Mass rearing of Steinernematid and Heterorhabditid nematodes can be done in vivo in insect hosts and in vitro in solid medium or in liquid medium. For in vivo production Galleria mellonella larvae are...
ENTOMOPATHOGENIC NEMATODES : A HIDDEN ENEMY OF INSECT PESTS
Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN's) are attractive, organic alternatives for controlling a wide range of insect pests and they are utilized in classical, conservation and augmentative biological control programs. The history of entomopathogenic nematology is briefly reviewed. In general, EPN's are soil borne and generally gets mutually associated with a bacterium which is responsible for pesticidal actions and its life cycle of consist of five developmental stages. The two most studied species of EPN's are Steinernematidae and Heterorhabditidae families which has mutualistic association with bacteria of genus Xenorhabdus and Photorhabdus, respectively. The virulence mechanisms of the symbiotic bacteria were depending upon antibiotic properties, phase variants and impeding host defense responses. In the laboratory use and small scale field experiments, in vivo production of EPNs appears to be the appropriate method. In vitro technology is used when large scale production is needed at reasonable quality and cost. The efficacy of EPNs can be enhanced through proper production technology, storage mechanism, application technology etc. The scientific community, academician and industrialist are interest to development of new bio-insecticides, which are environmentally friendly. The concerns for the environment and human health and to reducing the risks connected with chemicals, the present review article focused on importance of EPN's in insect pests management, its life cycle, virulence mechanism, mass production technology, commercial product and storage, application technology, guideline for field application and its ccompatibility with insecticide and fertilizers are briefly reviewed.
Successes and failures in the use of parasitic nematodes for pest control
Biological Control, 2006
Advances in mass-production and formulation technology of entomopathogenic nematodes, the discovery of numerous isolates/ strains and the desirability of reducing pesticide usage have resulted in a surge of scientific and commercial interest in these nematodes. The lessons learned from earlier problems have encouraged scientists and leading commercial companies to increase their efforts toward improving cost efficiency and better product positioning in the market within the confines of product capabilities. The successes or failures of the nematodes against 24 arthropod pest species of agriculture and animals and against a major slug pest in agriculture are discussed in this review. Commercial successes are documented in markets such as citrus (Diaprepes root weevil), greenhouses and glasshouses (black vine weevil, fungus gnats, thrips, and certain borers), turf (white grubs, billbugs, and mole crickets), and mushrooms (sciarid flies). In addition, the successful commercialization of a nematode (Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita) against slugs in agricultural systems is presented. Despite this progress, the reality is that nematode-based products have limited market share. Limited share is attributed to higher product cost compared to standard insecticides, low efficacy under unfavorable conditions, application timing and conditions, limited data and cost benefit in IPM programs, refrigeration requirements and limited room temperature shelf life (product quality), use of suboptimum nematode species, and lack of detail application directions. One or more of these factors affected the market introduction of the nematodes despite promising field efficacy against insects such as black cutworm in turf, sugar beet weevil in sugar beet, sweet potato weevil in sweet potato, and house fly adult in animal-rearing farms. Insects such as cabbage root maggots, carrot root weevil, and Colorado potato beetle are listed on the label of certain commercial products despite low efficacy data, due to insect susceptibility, biology, and/or behavior. To make entomopathogenic nematodes more successful, realistic strategies through genetic engineering, IPM programs, and new delivery systems and/or training programs to overcome their inherent cost, formulation instability, and limited field efficacy toward certain insects are needed.