Published in

Frontiers Media, Frontiers in Microbiology, (12), 2021

DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.705343

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The Toxins of Beauveria bassiana and the Strategies to Improve Their Virulence to Insects

Journal article published in 2021 by Haiyang Wang, Hui Peng, Wenjuan Li, Peng Cheng, Maoqing Gong
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
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Abstract

The long-term and excessive usage of pesticides is an enormous burden on the environment, which also increases pest resistance. To overcome this problem, research and application of entomopathogenic fungi, which are both environmentally friendly and cause lower resistance, have gained great momentum. Entomopathogenic fungi have a wide range of prospects. Apart from Bacillus thuringiensis, Beauveria bassiana is the most studied biopesticide. After invading insect hosts, B. bassiana produces a variety of toxins, which are secondary metabolites such as beauvericin, bassianin, bassianolide, beauverolides, tenellin, oosporein, and oxalic acid. These toxins help B. bassiana to parasitize and kill the hosts. This review unequivocally considers beauveria toxins highly promising and summarizes their attack mechanism(s) on the host insect immune system. Genetic engineering strategies to improve toxin principles, genes, or virulent molecules of B. bassiana have also been discussed. Lastly, we discuss the future perspective of Beauveria toxin research, including newly discovered toxins.