Types of Pathogens
Types of Pathogens
PATHOGENS
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Pathogens have been available for
insect control since the 1890's, but
only a few have gained much
acceptance.
INSECT VIRUSES
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Viruses are widespread in insects, and often
quite specific, affecting only a single species.
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They have no infective properties, other than
invading internal tissues, so they must be
ingested.
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Ingestion occurs by eating contaminated
foliage, by cannibalism, or when the female
passes the disease to her progeny on, or in, the
egg.
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Several types, including RNA and DNA viruses.
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DNA Viruses: Baculoviruses(Nuclear
polyhedrosis viruses-NPV and Granuloviruses-
GV), Ascoviruses, Iridoviruses, Parvoviruses,
Polydnaviruses and Poxviruses.
●
RNA Viruses: Reoviruses(Cytoplasmic
polyhedrosis viruses), Nodaviruses, Picorna-
likeviruses and Tetraviruses.
Baculoviruses
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Are pathogens that attack insects and other
arthropods. Like some human viruses, they are
usually extremely small (less than a thousandth
of a millimeter across), and are composed
primarily of double-stranded DNA that codes for
genes needed for virus establishment and
reproduction.
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Most insect baculoviruses must be eaten by the
host to produce an infection, which is typically
fatal to the insect.
●
Baculoviruses can be found wherever insects
exist. Because rain and wind readily carry
baculoviruses fron place to place, it is likely that
every piece of land and body of water contains
some virus particles.
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Insect killed by baculoviruses have a
characteristic shiny-oily appearance, and are
often seen hanging limply from vegetation.
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Nuclear polyhedrosis
virus (NPV), part of
the family of
baculoviruses,is a
virus affecting
insects,
predominantly moths
and butterflies. It has
been used as a
pesticide
●
Granulovirus is a
genus of the family
Baculoviridae
subfamily
Eubaculovirinae
characterized by
ovicylindrical
occlusion bodies.
Ascoviruses
●
Is a genus of viruses
inthe family iridovirae.
Insect serveas natural
host. There are
currently only two
species in this genus
including the type
species invertebrate
indescent virus.
Parvoviruses (Parvoridae)
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Densoviruses -reproduce in insect cells
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Parvoviruses - reproduce in suitable
mammalian host.
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Autonomous viruses have all the information
necessary to reproduce in a suitable host cell
and they package(-) sense DNA strands as
their genome.
Polydnaviruses
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An insect virus that
integrates itself inside
a wasp genome.
●
Poxviridae is a family of
viruses. Humans,
vertebrates, and
arthropods serve as
natural hosts. There are
currently 69 species in
this family, divided
among 28 genera, which
are divided into two
subfamilies. Diseases
associated with this
family include smallpox.
RNA VIRUSES:
●
Reoviridae is a family of
viruses. They have a
wide host range,
including vertebrates,
invertebrates, plants,
protists and fungi. They
lack lipid envelopes and
package their genomes
of discrete double-
stranded segments of
RNA within multi-layered
capsids.
Picorna-like viruses
●
Picorna-like viruses are a loosely defined
group of positive-sense single stranded
RNA viruses that are major pathogens of
animals, plants and insects.
●
They include viruses that are of enermous
economic and public-health concern and
are responsible for animal disease(such
as poliomyelitis), plant diseases(such as
sharka) and insect diseases(such as
sacbrood).
●
Sacbrood virus or
SBV is an infectious
disease caused by
the morator aetatulas
virus that affects
honey bee larvae.
When sick the colony
declines gradually
with little or no
replacement troops.
Tetraviruses
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The tetraviridae were a family of viruses
so named because they have T=4
symmetry (T is the triangulation number),
are extremely host specific and infect
moths and butterflies.
BACTERIAL PATHOGENS
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They can be divided into two broad categories,
non-spore forming bacteria and spore-forming
bacteria.
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Non-spore forming bacteria are a group of
bacteria that do not produce spores. Generally,
they are non pathogenic bacteria and they live
in the intestine of animals and insects.
However, under stress conditions such as
usually high temperatures, poor food quality,
crowding and mechanical injury, they enter the
tissues of the intestine and become
●
This means that non-spore-forming
bacteria are not active invaders. Most
non-spore-forming bacteria belong to the
family Enterobacteriaceae or
Pseudomonidaceae.
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Non-spore forming bacteria generally
have low pathogenicity when they occur in
the digestive tract of an insect, but may be
very pathogenic if they are able to enter
the insects hemocel.
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Many non-spore-forming bacteria multiply
rapidly and may cause death of the insect
from bacterial septicemia within one or
two days.
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The digestive tracts of most insects
contain non-spore-forming bacteria
capable of producing bacterial septicemia
if they are able to get into the hemocoel.
These are known collectively as
facultative pathogens.
Spore-forming bacteria
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Some bacteria such as the Bacillus and
Clostridium species are able to form spores.
These spores, also referred to as endospores,
are the dormant form of vegetative bacteria and
are highly resistant to physical and chemical
influences. Disinfection measures for
inactivating spores require a special spectrum
of activity that covers both the bacterium’s
vegetative form and spores.
FUNGAL PATHOGENS
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Entomopathogenic fungi, unlike other groups of
insect pathogenic microorganisms, infect their
hosts directly through the exoskeleton.
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Entomopathogenic fungi are able to invade their
insect hosts by penetrating directly through the
cuticle.
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Under appropriate conditions the spore
germinates, penetrates the cuticle of the host
and enters the hemocoel.
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Hemocoel -the primary body cavity of most
invertebrates, containing circulatory fluid.
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Fungal reproduction occurs in the hemocoel of
the insect host.
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As the hemocoel becomes filled with hyphal
bodies, the insect usually dies and the fungus
continues to develop saprophytically.
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After the body of the dead insect is filled
with mycelia,fruiting structures emerge
from the cadaver and produce infectious
spores.
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Dead insect has the consistency of a
moist loaf of bread.
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Tanada and kaya (1993) listed 8 classes,13
orders and 57 genera that contain
entomopathogenic species of fungi.
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There are 5 major groups of fungi: the flagelate
fungi or Chytridiomycetes, the Oomycetes(also
flagelate but also not true fungi), the
Zygomycetes, the Ascomycetes, and the
Basidiomycota.
CHYTRIDIOMYCETES
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The Phylum Chytridiomycota (chytrids) is one of
the five true phyla of fungi. There is only one
class in the Phylum Chytridiomycota, the
Chytridiomycetes. The chytrids are the simplest
and most primitive Eumycota, or true fungi.
ZYGOMYCETES
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The Zygomycetes are fungi that thrive in soil
and dead plant material.
●
Many Zygomycetes are associated with living
organisms as parasites or mycorrhiza-forming
fungi.
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As parasites they infect numerous species of
insects and to a lesser extent eelworms or other
microscopic animals
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Zygomycetes (Order Entomophthorales)
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Members of this order are predominately parasites of
insects and other arthropods
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Entomophthora(more than 40 species recognized) and
Massospora are insect parasites
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Entomophthora muscae kills house flies.Flies are
sometimes found attached to window panes,
surrounded by a halo of sporangia (sometimes
referred to as conidia) that are forcibly discharged
from sporangiophores which emerge between the
abdominal segments. .
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Host is attached to surface by rhizoids,
sporangiophores form and push out between the
abdominal segments sporangia are forcibly discharged
as turgor pressure builds up in the sporangiophore.
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A germ tube forms and penetrates the host.
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Insect becomes restless and exhibits behavioral
changes.
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Later infections, posterior portions of the abdomen
drop away successively, exposing sporangia. Insect
will continue to fly around with only a head and
thorax.
●
Zygospores my form with the abdomen with time.
ASCOMYCETES
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Ascomycota is a phylum of the kingdom Fungi
that, together with the Basidiomycota, forms the
subkingdom Dikarya.
●
Its members are commonly known as the sac
fungi or ascomycetes.
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It is the largest phylum of Fungi, with over
64,000 species.
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Many ascomycetes are associated with insects
to form symbioses.
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The fungi are necrotrophic and biotrophic
parasites, endosymbionts, insect-dispersed
forms, and other obligate associates that
provide nourishment for insects.
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Ascomycetes can be found in every type of
habitat, including both freshwater and saltwater
environments. In aquatic habitats, ascomycetes
typically live as a parasite on coral, algae, or
other living organisms. Some species live on
decaying matter instead.
BASIDIOMYCOTA
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Are filamentous fungi composed of hyphae
(except for yeast), and reproducing sexually via
the formation of specialized club-shaped end
cells called basidia that normally bear external
melospores (usually four).
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Basidiomycota includes these groups:
mushrooms, puffballs, stinkhorns, bracket fungi,
other polypores, jelly fungi, boletes,
chanterelles, earth stars, smuts, bunts, rusts,
mirror yeasts, and the human pathogenic yeast
Cryptococcus.
MICROSPORIDIA
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Microsporidia are important primary pathogens
of insects.
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The smallest of eukaryotes, with unicellular
spores and no mitochondria, they are obligate
intracellular parasites.
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The most obvious morphological characteristic
of microsporidia is the polar filament, a fine
hollow tube that is coiled within the mature
spore and which everts when the spore
germinates in the midgut lumen of the host.
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Microsporidia cause disease in all vertebrate
classes, almost all invertebrate classes, and
ciliates, myxozoans and gregarines as well, but
never plants
●
They are most common in arthropods, and then
fish. Over half the described species have been
isolated from Lepidoptera and Diptera, but this
may be a function of which insect orders have
received the most study.
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Transmission of microsporidia can be horizontal
by oral ingestion, vertical, or both, or by
mechanical inoculation by a parasitoid.
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However, microsporidia can also regulate
insect populations and therefore offer promise
as biological control agents.
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Their best use will probably be as
augmentatively released or classical biological
control agents, not as pesticides.
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The only microsporidian ever registered as a
microbial pesticide is Nosema locustae, a
pathogen of grasshoppers. It is used in
rangeland areas for grasshopper control.
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Two other microsporidian species that are
known to control populations of pest insects are
Nosemafumiferanae, a naturally-occurring
pathogen of the spruce budworm,
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Nosema pyrausta , a naturally-occurring
pathogen of the European corn borer, which
was accidently introduced to the U.S. at the
time of the host introduction or shortly
thereafter.
PROTOZOA
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Protozoa are the most taxonomically diverse
group of insect pathogens.
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All Protozoa are single-celled eukaryotes and
they range in their interactions with insects from
commensualists and mutualists, to plant and
animal pathogens vectored by insects, to acute
insect pathogens.
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Of some 14,000 described species of Protozoa,
about 500 are pathogens of insects. Many are
chronic pathogens that may debilitate a host
without producing obvious disease symptoms
but some species are extremely virulent,
causing stunted growth, slow development, and
early death.
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Entry into the host is typically by ingestion, but
some can invade through the cuticle.
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Some species may be transovarially transmitted
from infected females to their offspring.
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Species that invade the cells of the host are
usually found in the cell cytoplasm and are
typically more pathogenic than extracellular
species.
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Some protozoans exhibit tissue tropism,
infecting only certain tissues or organs, others
are systemic. The neogregarines often exhibit
tissue tropism, the tissue or tissues infected
being a species specific characteristic.
●
Death or debilitation of infected hosts may be,
for example, the result of competition for
metabolites, disruption of normal cell and tissue
function, or blockage of the gut or other organs
by extracellular species.
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Some insects such as mosquitoes become
chlorotic or whitish in color when infected, and
some lepidopteran or coleopteran larvae may
appear puffy. Many species of protozoans,
however, do not typically cause outward signs
of disease
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The insect-pathogenic protozoa are currently
recorded from four major groups of the
Protozoa:
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Amoebas - a single-celled animal that catches
food and moves about by extending fingerlike
projections of protoplasm. Amoebas are either
free-living in damp environments or parasitic
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Gregarines - are large protozoans that live as
parasites in invertebrates. They exhibit smooth
gliding locomotion but have no cilia or other
external organelles that can account for this
movement
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Flagelates - is a cell or organism with one or
more whip-like appendages called flagella. The
word flagellate also describes a particular
construction characteristic of many prokaryotes
and eukaryotes and their means of motion.
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Celiates -are a group of protozoans
characterized by the presence of hair-like
organelles called cilia, which are identical in
structure to eukaryotic flagella, but are in
general shorter and present in much larger
numbers, with a different undulating pattern
than flagella.
Example of ciliates
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amoebas
NEMATODES
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Some entomogenous nematodes have
characteristics that allow them to considerd with
the pathogens.
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Nematodes are simple roundworms. Colorless,
unsegmented, and lacking appendages,
nematodes may be free-living, predaceous, or
parasitic.
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The only insect-parasitic nematodes
possessing an optimal balance of biological
control attributes are entomopathogenic or
insecticidal nematodes in the genera
Steinernema and Heterorhabditis.
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Entomopathogenic nematodes are
extraordinarily lethal to many important insect
pests, yet are safe for plants and animals.
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Infected caterpillar (wax moth larva) with
nematodes emerging
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Entomophatogenic nematodes enter the host
via natural body openings or through the
cuticle.
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Some species utilize an anterior stylet or a
tooth to rasp the cuticle and gain entrance into
the hemocoel.
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Others ingress by ovipositing on the host food
source and the eggs hatch in the midgut.
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Effects of nematodes parasitism on the host
can be sterility reduced fecundity,reduced
mobility and life span,behavioral and
morphological changes and death.
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