Aculops lycopersici performs worse on plants inoculated with endophytic fungi

Soil-borne beneficial microbes have been recognized for their ability to improve plant growth, antagonize pathogens and prime plants against future stressors. Among root-colonizing microbes, plant-growth promoting fungi have shown potential in protecting plants not only against pathogens but also aboveground herbivores via the elicitation of defense responses. Nevertheless, plant-microbe-mite interactions are largely understudied. Herein, we assessed the effects of several endophytic fungal species/strains on the performance of the tomato russet mite (TRM) Aculops lycopersici. Pesticides application represents the main method to control TRM populations since biological control with the use of predatory mites in not effective in tomato. Hence, we assessed the hypothesis that soil microbes can adversely affect TRM via the elicitation of plant-mediated responses. Our results show that mite population increase is negatively affected on plants colonized by the tested microbes highlighting their potential in TRM control in sustainable crop production.
The authors acknowledge funding from PRIMA programme, supported under Horizon 2020, the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (INTOMED project, PRIMA 2018-Section 2).