03025naa a2200337 a 450000100080000000500110000800800410001902200140006002400380007410000150011224501710012726000090029852020090030765000180231665000180233465000210235265000140237365000270238765300190241465300260243365300280245965300140248770000200250170000200252170000230254170000190256470000200258370000180260370000270262177300390264820655152017-09-29       2017    bl uuuu     u00u1 u    #d  a2352-40737 a10.1016/j.plgene.2017.01.0012DOI1 aSANTOS, V.  aIdentification of double-stranded RNA viruses in Brazilian strains of Metarhizium anisopliae and their effects on fungal biology and virulence.h[electronic resource]  c2017  aBrazil is the leading country in the use of the entomopathogenic fungusMetarhiziumanisopliae against agricultural pests. Very little information has been documented about the diversity and the impact of mycoviruses on M. anisopliae compared to M. robertsii and M. brunneum. This study reports the discovery ofmycoviruses associated with native BrazilianMetarhiziumspp. strains fromthe entomopathogen collection of theUniversity of São Paulo, including strains used formass-production of aerial conidia in sugar-alcohol factories tomeet their own demand for controlling sugarcane spittlebugs and used in commercialmycoinsecticides.We also investigated the potential effects of viral infection on the biological traits of some of these strains. Viral-like double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) was found in 61% of the 36 Metarhizium spp. strains analyzed and showed a large variation of different electrophoretic banding patterns consisting of 2 to 8 dsRNA bands in polyacrylamide gels (PAGE). No dsRNA was detected in any of the strains from commercial products used in this study. Efforts to ?cure? strains with dsRNA revealed that the inhibitor of protein synthesis cycloheximidewas not efficient in eradicating dsRNA viruses from Metarhizium spp. strains. Some dsRNA segments of M. anisopliae ESALQ 26 were lost following hyphal tip subculturing. The dsRNA-variants of M. anisopliae strains ESALQ 866, ESALQ 1256 and ESALQ 1595 were healed after eithermonoconidial or hyphal tip subculturing. Single spore cultures of M. anisopliae ESALQ 1256 exhibited significant differences in vegetative growth, conidia production, and virulence against Tenebrio molitor larvae, although these differences were not linked with dsRNA. Moreover, fungal variants free of or positive for dsRNA had similar heat and UV tolerance responses. Our results suggest that viral-like dsRNA are very common among Brazilian M. anisopliae strains, but there is sparse evidence that these mycoviruses are harmful to fungal biological traits.  aCycloheximide  aDsRNA viruses  aStress tolerance  aVirulence  aMetarhizium anisopliae  aFungal biology  aHyphal tip subculture  aMonoconidial subculture  aMycovirus1 aMASCARIN, G. M.1 aLOPES, M. da S.1 aALVES, M. C. D. F.1 aREZENDE, J. M.1 aGATTI, M. S. V.1 aDUNLAP, C. A.1 aDELALIBERA JÚNIOR, I.  tPlant Genegv. 11, p. 49-58, 2017.