Biological effect of space carrying in paecilomyces lilacinus

The biological effect of space mutagenesis on Paecilomyces lilacinus was studied with a P. lilacinus strain Shandong carried by the 'Shenzhou8' spacecraft. 30 strains isolated from the colonies of survival aerospace mutant strains were tested for their biological characteristics The results showed that the biological characteristics of aerospace mutant strains of P.lilacinus were significantly different with the original strain. The morphology, colony growing rate, spore production, dry weight of mycelium and pathogenicity of space mutagenesis strains were significantly different with that of the original strain; growth rate, dry weight and sporular quantity showed higher negative mutation rates; the pathogenicity of the space-induced strains against B. xylophilus eggs was lower, with the highest parasitic rate only 18.0% for Sd-m-20, the space-induced strains to the eggs of M. incognita showed a higher pathogenicity of, with the improved parasitic rates of Sd-m-9, Sd-m-11, Sd-m-16, Sd-m-22 and Sd-m-26 14.48%, 14.90%, 12.35%, 7.66% and 17.45%, respectively, and were higher than the parasitic rate of original strain (78.3%). The influence of space mutagenesis of P. lilacinus was significant, and the biological characteristics could provide excellent references and a new way in breeding of P. lilacinus superior strain. Space mutagenesis could be used as to obtain new nematophagous fungal strains for biological control of M. incognita. (authors)