Soil Chemical Properties Barely Perturb the Abundance of Entomopathogenic <i>Fusarium oxysporum</i>: A Case Study Using a Generalized Linear Mixed Model for Microbial Pathogen Occurrence Count Data

<i>Fusarium oxysporum</i> exhibits insect pathogenicity&#8212;however, generalized concerns of releasing phytopathogens within agroecosystems marred its entomopathogenicity-related investigations. In a previous study, soils were sampled from Douro vineyards and adjacent hedgerows. In...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lav Sharma, Irene Oliveira, Fernando Raimundo, Laura Torres, Guilhermina Marques
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2018-11-01
Series:Pathogens
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0817/7/4/89
Description
Summary:<i>Fusarium oxysporum</i> exhibits insect pathogenicity&#8212;however, generalized concerns of releasing phytopathogens within agroecosystems marred its entomopathogenicity-related investigations. In a previous study, soils were sampled from Douro vineyards and adjacent hedgerows. In this study, 80 of those soils were analyzed for their chemical properties and were subsequently co-related with the abundance of entomopathogenic <i>F. oxysporum</i>, after insect baiting of soils with <i>Galleria mellonella</i> and <i>Tenebrio molitor</i> larvae. The soil chemical properties studied were organic matter content; total organic carbon; total nitrogen; available potassium; available phosphorus; exchangeable cations, such as K<sup>+</sup>, Na<sup>+</sup>, Ca<sup>2+</sup>, and Mg<sup>2+</sup>; pH; total acidity; degree of base saturation; and effective cation exchange capacity. Entomopathogenic <i>F. oxysporum</i> was found in 48 soils, i.e., 60% &#177; 5.47%, of the total soil samples. Out of the 1280 insect larvae used, 93, i.e., 7.26% &#177; 0.72%, were found dead by entomopathogenic <i>F. oxysporum</i>. Stepwise deletion of non-significant variables using a generalized linear model was followed by a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM). A higher C:N (logarithmized) (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.001) and lower exchangeable K<sup>+</sup> (logarithmized) (<i>p</i> = 0.008) were found significant for higher fungal abundance. Overall, this study suggests that entomopathogenic <i>F. oxysporum</i> is robust with regard to agricultural changes, and GLMM is a useful statistical tool for count data in ecology.
ISSN:2076-0817