All the male, engorged females and unfed nymph of
R.
microplus ticks collected from Anjora village were found to be infected on third day of collection. The ticks were trapped by fungal hyphae showing growth on their appendages followed by the growth on their mouth partswith restricted movements. The mortality of nymphal stages of ticks occurred on third day of infection. The male and unfed female ticks were found dead on fourth day of infection with hyphae covered on whole body surface whereas the mortality in engorged female ticks was observed on fifth day post infection with very less number of egg laying. The fungus from cadaver of ticks cultured on potato dextrose agar showed full growth in seven days at 29°C temperature and 75% relative humidity. The species of fungi was identified morphologically as
Fusarium sp. with hyaline filamentous hyphae and septet oval conidia (Fig 1).
Molecular analysis
The quality of DNA isolated from the fungal culture was evaluated on 1.0% Agarose Gel showed a single band of high-molecular weight DNA. Fragment of gene was amplified by Polymerase Chain Reaction. The gel electrophoresis showed a single intense band corresponding to a 553 bp indicating successful amplification of gene from template DNA (Fig 2).The fungal isolate showed high similarity with
Fusarium beomiforme based on nucleotide homology and phylogenetic analysis.
Phylogenetic analysis
The evolutionary history was inferred using the Neighbor-Joining method
(Saitou and Nei, 1987). The confidence probability (multiplied by 100) that the interior branch length is greater than 0, as estimated using the bootstrap test (500 replicates) was observed next to the branches
(Dopazo, 1994,
Rzhetsky A. and Nei, 1992). The evolutionary distances were computed using the Maximum Composite Likelihood method
(Tamura et al., 2004) and were in the units of the number of base substitutions per site. Codon positions included were 1
st+2
nd+3
rd+Noncoding. All positions containing gaps and missing data were eliminated (Fig 3).
Fusarium beomiforme strain CBS 100160 small subunit ribosomal RNA gene, partial sequence; internal transcribed spacer 1, 5.8S ribosomal RNA gene, and internal transcribed spacer 2, complete sequence; and large subunit ribosomal RNA gene partial sequence:
Sequence ID: MH862691.1; Length: 553; Number of Matches: 1; Range 1: 129 to 552.
Mechanism of action of entomopathogenic fungi on ticks after treatment
The adult and nymph stages of ticks after treatment with EPF showed the restricted and sluggish movement. On the second day after treatment the thin fungal hyphae were observed to grow on the body of ticks. The mycelial growth traps the appendages of ticks and makes them confined just like pray in the spider web. The hyphae grow so fast that the ticks appeared to be white cottony bundles (Fig 4 and 5). The mortality of ticks was confirmed by observing the pedal reflexes under the dissection microscope using dissecting needle.
Pathogenicity of EPF F. beomiforme against engorged (adult) R. microplus female ticks at different concentrations
The mean mortality percentage of engorged (adult)
R.
microplus female ticks after treatment with EPF
F.
beomiforme showed mortality of 16.66 and 33.55 per cent at 120 and 144 HAT respectively. The mortality of adult female ticks at the concentration of n x 106 spores ml
-1 was recorded as 16.66, 33.33 and 50 per cent at 96, 120 and 144 HAT whereas the concentration of n x 10
7 spores ml
-1 showed 0, 66.66, 83.3 and 100 per cent mortality at 72, 96, 120 and 144 hours after treatment (Table 1).
Pathogenicity against unfed (Nymphs) at different concentrations
The mortality of unfed (Nymphs) ticks at the concentration of n x 10
6 spores ml
-1 was observed as 0, 12.5, 25 and 50 per cent at 72, 96, 120 and 144 hours after treatment, respectively whereas the concentration of n x 10
7 spores ml
-1 showed 0, 50, 62.5 and 75 per cent mortality at 72, 96, 120 and 144 hours after treatment respectively. The significant mortality of ticks at the concentration of n x 10
8 spores ml
-1 was recorded as 50, 75, 100 and 100 per cent at 72, 96, 120 and 144 hours after treatment, respectively. (Table 1).
In vitro efficacy of fungal isolates on egg laying capacity of R. microplus female ticks
The mean egg laying capacity of female ticks treated with
Fusarium beomiforme at the concentration of n x 105 spores ml
-1 was recorded as 25.33 with percent efficacy of 3.59% as compared to egg laying capacity of females in control group. The reduction in mean egg laying capacity of female ticks was observed as 96.41%. At the concentration of n x 10
6 spores ml
-1, n x 10
7 spores ml
-1 and n x 108 spores ml
-1 the egg laying capacity of female ticks was observed as zero with 100% percent efficacy (Table 2).
In vitro efficacy of fungal isolates on egg hatchability of R. microplus female ticks after treatment with various isolates of EPF at different concentrations
Eggs treated with
F.
beomiforme at the concentration of n x 10
5 spores ml
-1 and n x 10
6 spores ml
-1 showed 18.80 and 12 per cent egg hatch, respectively. No egg hatching was observed at the n x 10
7 spores ml
-1 and n x 10
8 spores ml
-1. The eggs laid by treated female ticks were showed no hatchability (Table 2). The entomopathogenic fungi
Fusarium spp. produces the mycotoxin Fusaric acid as reported by
Li et al., (2013) which is responsible for death of the host with the effects such as partial or general paralysis, decreased irritability, sluggishness in infested insects and behavioural symptoms that are persistent with the action of neuromuscular toxin as reported by
Charnley et al. (1984).
In vitro evaluation of pathogenicity of
Beauveria bassiana and
Metarhizium anisopliae isolates on eggs and larva of
Amblyomma cajennense showed the significant reduction in egg laying and lower hatching rate in comparison with the control.
B.
bassiana was highly pathogenic against engorged
R.
(B.
) microplus females with the concentration of 109 conidia/ ml significantly reduced the amount of ovipositioning with mortality of ticks before oviposit.
B.
bassiana strain tested on developmental stages of
R.
sanguineus under laboratory conditions with significantly higher mortality on eggs, larvae, nymphs and adults than those of the control groups at 5 days post-infection
(Souza et al., 1999; Campos et al., 2010; Ming et al., 2013 and
Cafarchia et al., 2015). In vitro treatment of
B.
microplus engorged females ticks with EPF
B.
bassiana at concentrations of 106, 107 and 108 conidia/ml resulted in the reduction in ovipositing period by 9.69-47.80%, egg mass weight by 4.71-53.87% and reproduction by 8.3-60.62%. Reduction in larval hatchability by 1.36-65.58% was noticed after immersion of tick eggs (0.25 g) in 1 ml of a suspension of the different conidial concentrations for 1 min. Amongst the study of pathogenicity of EPF
B.
bassiana,
M.
anisopliae,
M.
flavoviride and
Paecilomyces fumosoroseus to various developmental stages of
R.
sanguineus showed that,
M.
anisopliae and
M.
flavoviride isolates prevented or reduced the ability of the ticks to lay eggs several days before their deaths. Female ticks infected by the fungi achieved only 11.3-60.8% of their egg-laying capacity compared with the controls
(Onofre et al., 2001; Paiao et al., 2001 and
Samish et al., 2001).