Identification of highly pathogenic Beauveria bassiana strain against Pieris rapae larvae

Seven different strains of Beauveria bassiana were used in a bioassay on Pieris rapae larvae. The results showed that an B. bassiana strain showed relatively high pathogenicity towards P. rapae larvae. The adjusted mortality rate was 92.86%, and the infection rate was 85.71% in 10days post inoculation. Molecular identification was performed to identify the unknown strain. Internal Transcribed Spacer sequence analysis showed that the polymerase chain reaction amplicon length of the unknown strain of Beauveria sp. was 573bp, and sequence similarity to the known B. bassiana sequences in the NCBI database was 99%. The B. bassiana strain was named Bb01. The changes of proteins and PPO of P. rapae larvae infected by B. bassiana Bb01 strain at different times was determined. The activity of PPO increased in 1-6 d and decreased in 7 d again after inoculation. The B. bassiana invaded into the insect body affected the balance of the proteins and PPO.