Molecular & Morphological Identification of Entomopathogenic Fungus Purpureocillium lilacinum Isolated From Soil, Balakot Tehsil, Khaber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

Purpureocillium lilacinum plays a crucial role as a natural biological control agent and serves as a valuable source for fungicides used in managing pests across various insect orders worldwide. The primary aim of this research was to isolate and identify P. lilacinum fungi from the soil of different forests and parks in the Balakot Tehsile. A total of 30 soil samples were collected, and fungal isolation was performed via the soil dilution technique. The isolated colonies were identified by the morphological characteristics of the colonies and conidia at the micro- and macro-levels by using scanning electron microscopy and also at the molecule-level standard molecular techniques, including nucleic acid extraction, ITS region ribosomal DNA amplification, and DNA sequence analysis. The fungal species isolated from the Balakot soil had 98.84–99.07% similarity with the related fungi recorded in GenBank, where they were deposited from different countries. This is the first effort to isolate P. lilaacinum from soil in Pakistan. In the future, it may have great economic value as a biocontrol agent in industry due to its entomopathogenic properties.