New study published: genomic virulence features of Beauveria bassiana as a biocontrol agent for the mountain pine beetle population

Our study on the genomics and transcriptomics characterization of Beauveria bassiana, an entomopathogenic fungus used as a biological agent in agriculture and forestry, was just published in BMC genomics. B. bassiana is of particular interest in regulating the proliferation of the invasive mountain pine beetle (MPB) Dendroctonus ponderosae, a wood-boring insect native to western North America that attacks a wide range of pine trees including lodgepole, ponderosa, western white, whitebark, limber and jack pine, causing extensive tree mortality. Our work investigates the phenotypic and genomic variation between B. bassiana strains to identify optimal strains against a specific insect.