38th Annual Meeting of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology

August 7-11, 2005  Anchorage, Alaska, U.S.A
   

Ecology of Entomophthorales: A European perspective

Jørgen Eilenberg1, Stanislaw Bałazy2, Jürg Enkerli3, Anselme Fournier3, Annette Bruun Jensen1, Siegfried Keller3, Charlotte Nielsen1, Cezary Tkaczuk4, Franco Widmer3
1Department of Ecology, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Thorvaldsensvej 40, DK 1871 Frb. C., Denmark
2Research Center for Agricultural and Forest Environment, Polish Academy of Sciences, Ul Bukowska, PL 60-809, Poznan, Poland
3 Agroscope FAL Reckenholz, Swiss Federal Research Station for Agroecology and Agriculture, CH 8046 Zürich, Switzerland
4 University of Podlasie, Department of Plant Protection, ul. Prusa 14, PL 08 – 110 Siedlce, Poland

The European COST Action 842 on Entomophthorales had as one aim to reveal novel information about the ecology of Entomophthorales. This was done by:

1) Workshops on practical sampling and diagnosis of Entomophthorales
2) Workshop discussions on methodologies for prevalence assessment
3) Initiation of new research programmes
4) Joint actions between scientists from different countries

With respect to 1) collection trips were performed in Switzerland and Poland, for example in the nature reservation of Białowieza with high biodiversity of Entomophthorales. Concerning 2) we tended to develop consensus about terms like ‘prevalence’ and the practical implications of these for studies on Entomophthorales. With respect to 3) new Danish projects on the genetic composition of host and pathogen in an aphid-Pandora neoaphidis system as well as the winter survival of the fungus will be presented. In addition, we will report on a Swiss project on the development of cultivation independent genetic tools for the study of P. neoaphidis in the environment. Finally, the action supported the possibilities for joint projects between European laboratories 4). One example of this is a co-operation between a Swiss and a Danish team to explore PCR techniques for cultivation independent tracking of Entomophthoralean species in soil samples.

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