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. 2018 Oct 23;9(4):148.
doi: 10.3390/insects9040148.

Insecticidal Activity of Photorhabdus luminescens against Drosophila suzukii

Rady Shawer  1   2 , Irene Donati  3 , Antonio Cellini  4 , Francesco Spinelli  5 , Nicola Mori  6
Affiliations

Insecticidal Activity of Photorhabdus luminescens against Drosophila suzukii

Rady Shawer et al. Insects. .

Abstract

Drosophila suzukii causes considerable economic damage to small and thin-skinned fruits including cherry, blueberry, raspberry, grape and strawberry. Since it attacks fruits at the ripening stage, the use of chemical pesticides is limited due to the high risk of residues on fruit. Biological control is thus expected to play an essential role in managing this pest. The Gram-negative bacterium, Photorhabdus luminescens and its symbiotic Heterorhabditis spp. nematode have been shown to be highly pathogenic to insects, with a potential for replacing pesticides to suppress several pests. Insecticidal activity of P. luminescens at different bacterial cell concentrations and its cell-free supernatant were assessed against third-instar larvae and pupae of D. suzukii under laboratory conditions. P. luminescens suspensions had a significant oral and contact toxicity on D. suzukii larvae and pupae, with mortalities up to of 70⁻100% 10 days after treatment. Cell-free supernatant in the diet also doubled mortality rates of feeding larvae. Our results suggest that P. luminescens may be a promising candidate for biological control of D. suzukii, and its use in integrated pest management (IPM) programs is discussed.

Keywords: Bioassay; Spotted Wing Drosophila; biological control; entomopathogenic bacteria; invasive pests.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Appearance of Drosophila suzukii specimens after treatment with Photorhabdus luminescens. (a) Dead larva that fed on diet containing P. luminescens. (b) Dead adult, fed as a larva on diet containing P. luminescens. (c) Deformed adult, dipped in P. luminescens solution as a pupa. (d) Live D. suzukii female pupa, dipped as a larva in tryptic soy broth (TSB) medium (control).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Drosophila suzukii adult survival (average and CI from n = 3 samples) in tubes treated with Photorhabdus luminescens (106 cells mL−1) or P. luminescens culture supernatant over 9 days after application (DAA). Survival rates were compared to 10 mM MgSO4 (control) or axenic Luria–Bertani (LB) medium. Different letters show significant differences among different treatments for each day, according to LSD test; p < 0.05.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Survival of Photorhabdus luminescens on cherry fruit over 7 days after inoculation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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