Project Number: 1907-22410-005-00
Project Type: Appropriated

Start Date: Oct 01, 2010
End Date: Sep 09, 2015

Objective:
1. Culture, conserve, characterize, and exchange insect pathogenic fungi, fungal genetic resources and associated information from the ARS Collection of Entomopathogenic Fungal Cultures (ARSEF). 2. Develop molecular tools of functional genomics for use in systematics and in defining secondary metabolites and products of insect pathogenic fungi that affect biological control potential. 3. Discover natural fungal metabolites and products to evaluate their roles in the survival, development, virulence, and pathogenicity of fungal biological control agents. 4. Identify and characterize novel lead chemistries for the development of new fungal metabolite-based pesticides for agricultural applications.

Approach:
Use various preservation methods (lyophil, cryogenic, offsite backup) to maintain culture collection and to accession new germplasm for customer base. Develop new methods to isolate, culture, and preserve isolates. Conduct studies on the systematics, taxonomy, and organismal biology of these fungi. Use molecular and bioinformatic tools to evaluate insect pathogenic genomes and gene families. Use molecular tools to target secondary metabolite pathways. Characterize biological activity and chemistries of compounds produced by fungi at various developmental stages.