Fig 1.
Study area map showing the sampling stations.
The map was created by the authors using QGIS software (version 3.34.1). All spatial layers were derived from administrative boundary shape files obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Tanzania (Click here for NBS GIS data), a public national institution, and are publicly available for use under CC BY 4.0 or equivalent open license.
Table 1.
Entomopathogenic fungal families identified from HTS of Uluguru Mountain soils. Normalized read counts and relative abundance (%) are shown for each family across all sites. Values indicate proportional representation within the total ITS dataset.
Table 2.
List of EPF species identified across sampled sites. Species are organized by family, with sites grouped by elevation (low, medium, high). Species presence across land-use types is indicated by asterisks.
Fig 2.
Species composition and occurrence frequency of soil EPF.
(A) Occurrence frequency (%) of EPF families across all sampled sites. (B) Occurrence frequency of individual EPF species, with colors indicating the family to which each species belongs (as shown in A).
Fig 3.
Heatmap showing EPF occurrence across the altitude and land use.
Rows represent EPF species and columns represent sites grouped by elevation and land-use type (cultivated or fallow soils). Color intensity indicates relative occurrence frequency, with darker shades showing higher detection.
Fig 4.
Relative abundance of EPF species across the altitude and land use type.
Bar plot showing relative abundance based on normalized ITS read counts. Samples are grouped by elevation and land-use type, highlighting differences in community composition.
Fig 5.
The alpha diversity of EPF community across the altitude and land use.
Boxplots showing within-sample diversity using (Shannon, Simpson, richness). Boxes indicate interquartile ranges, lines show medians, and whiskers represent minima and maxima.
Fig 6.
Principal Coordinates Analysis (PCoA) of EPF community composition across sites differing in altitude and land use, based on Bray-Curtis dissimilarity.
Each point represents a sample, with shape indicating altitude and color indicating land-use type. PC1 (28.1%) and PC2 (19.5%) show the percentage of variation explained along each axis. Ellipses highlight k-means clusters, and cluster centroids are labeled.
Table 3.
Preliminary pathogenicity of selected EPF isolates against second instar S. frugiperda larvae. The table shows the number of isolates obtained per species, isolates tested, number causing positive infection, key infection signs on cadavers, mortality range (%), mean ± SD, and whether re-isolation was successful. Species names are italicized.
Fig 7.
Maximum likelihood phylogenetic dendrogram based on ITS rDNA sequences of soil EPF isolates.
The tree was inferred under the Kimura 2-parameter (K2) model with 1,000 bootstrap replicates. Partial deletion was applied with a 95% site coverage cutoff. Bootstrap values >= 65% are shown at the nodes. Branch lengths represent the number of substitutions per site. The tree was rooted using B. bassiana as the outgroup.