Al Khoury Charbel, Nemer Georges, Humber Richard, El-Hachem Nehme, Guillot Jacques, Chehab Racha, Noujeim Elise, El Khoury Yara, Skaff Wadih, Estephan Nathalie, Nemer Nabil
Department of Natural Sciences, Byblos Campus, School of Arts and Sciences, Lebanese American University, Byblos P.O. Box 36, Lebanon.
Division of Genomics and Translational Biomedicine, College of Health and Life Sciences, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha P.O. Box 34110, Qatar.
J Fungi (Basel). 2021 Oct 31;7(11):924. doi: 10.3390/jof7110924.
The cedar forests of Lebanon have been threatened by the outbreak caused by climate change of a web-spinning sawfly, (Hymenoptera: Pamphiliidae), which negatively impacted the survival of one of the oldest tree species on earth. In this study, we investigated the occurrence of naturally soil-inhabiting entomopathogenic fungi for their role in containing the massive outbreak of this insect. We used a combination of fungal bioexploration methods, including insect bait and selective media. Morphological features and multilocus phylogeny-based on Sanger sequencing of the transcripts encoding the translation elongation factor 1-alpha (), RNA polymerase II second largest subunit (), and the nuclear intergenic region (Bloc) were used for species identification. The occurrence rate of entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) varied with location, soil structure, forest structure, and isolation method. From 15 soil samples positive for fungal occurrence, a total of 249 isolates was obtained from all locations using different isolation methods. The phylogenetic analysis confirmed the existence of two novel indigenous species: sp. nov. and sp. nov. In conclusion, the present survey was successful (1) in optimizing the isolation methods for EPF, (2) investigating the natural occurrence of spp. in outbreak areas of , and (3) in characterizing the presence of new species in Lebanese cedar forest soil.
黎巴嫩的雪松林受到一种结网锯蜂（膜翅目：叶蜂科）因气候变化引发的虫灾威胁，这种虫灾对地球上最古老的树种之一的生存产生了负面影响。在本研究中，我们调查了自然栖息于土壤中的昆虫病原真菌在控制这种昆虫大规模爆发中所起的作用。我们采用了多种真菌生物勘探方法的组合，包括昆虫诱饵法和选择性培养基法。基于对编码翻译延伸因子1-α（）、RNA聚合酶II第二大亚基（）以及核基因间隔区（Bloc）的转录本进行桑格测序的形态学特征和多位点系统发育分析，用于物种鉴定。昆虫病原真菌（EPF）的发生率因地点、土壤结构、森林结构和分离方法而异。从15份真菌检测呈阳性的土壤样本中，使用不同的分离方法从所有地点共获得了249株分离株。系统发育分析证实存在两个新的本土物种：新种和新种。总之，本次调查成功做到了：（1）优化了EPF的分离方法；（2）调查了在虫灾爆发地区的自然发生情况；（3）鉴定了黎巴嫩雪松林土壤中存在的新物种。
