Interações de folhas de soja e algodão com a atividade do vírus de poliedrose nuclear de Chrysodeixis includens

Abstract

Nucleopolyhedrovirus are important microbial control agents of lepidopteran larvae. However, their activity may be compromised during interaction with their host plants. Understanding the interaction process of the caterpillar virus Chrysodeixis includens, ChinNPV, with two of its hosts, soybean and cotton, may help to expand the use of biological pesticides by alleviating their limitations. The plant/virus interaction was studied in order to verify the influence of the plant on the infection process, changing the form and the moment in which the larvae feed on these substrates. The treatments were: leaf disc, incorporation of leaf (lyophilized and oven-dried) in diet, feeding with leaf substrate before viral inoculation, persistence, and virus exposure on the plant. Evaluations were carried out until the 10th or 12th days after inoculation, when the weight and stage of development of each survivor were determined. Mortality data were submitted to survival analysis with competitive risks and the other data to ANOVA. Histopathological changes in the midgut of caterpillars fed with soybean and cotton leaves and inoculated with ChinNPV were analyzed by light microscopy. Fixation of the virus particles was evaluated by extracting the epicuticular wax with five solvents followed by the application, washing and counting of the remaining virus. Fixation, morphology and persistence of the polyhedra on soybean and cotton leaves, under controlled environment and field, were evaluated by SEM on different periods. The mortality of caterpillars was compromised by cotton in almost all bioassays performed. NPV inoculation on soybean leaf discs resulted in diet-like mortalities. However, when lyophilized tissues were incorporated into the diet, soybean leaflets reduced the mortality of C. includens by NPV, with mortality similar to that caused by cotton, and when drying in oven, the larval mortality was intermediate between that presented by artificial diet and cotton leaves. When the virus was exposed on the soybean surface and later recovered, the time of contact with the leaf (72h) reduced the activity of the virus; the same was not true for cotton. The histopathological analysis showed disruption of epithelial cells in treatments of previous leaf feeding; however, this phenomenon did not change the mortality of caterpillars. While in the field, the polyhedra distribution was uniform on the phylloplane of the two cultures, in the laboratory, the polyhedra formed aggregates on the surface of the soybean. Already when the epicuticular wax was removed, the interaction of the leaf with the virus was affected. The activity of ChinNPV was compromised by both soybean and cotton leaves, and the persistence of the virus begins to decrease after the third day of contact with the phylloplane. It was possible to observe that the inactivation of the virus only occurs when cotton leaf and virus are supplied together, while in soybean, the time of contact of the virus with the leaf seems to influence, reducing the mortality of the caterpillars. Thus, it would be interesting to study formulations and doses to compensate for the loss of viral activity caused by foliar tissues.