Study: Well-fed fungus improves in pest control

A new study from the University of Maryland (UMD) discovers how to make the fungus Metarhizium robertsii even more effective at controlling ants, flies, ticks and other pests. The findings, published in the July 1, 2026, issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that “found that “strains capable of using a wider range of nutrients were both faster and deadlier at killing insects and more effective at colonizing plant roots,” per a news release on the topic.

“We expected to see a trade-off—that becoming a better plant partner would come at the cost of being a good killer or vice versa,” said the study’s senior author, Dr. Raymond St. Leger, a Distinguished University Professor of Entomology at UMD. “Instead, the two abilities rise and fall together, and what links them is the fungus’s underlying nutritional flexibility.” 

By analyzing and testing eight strains of M. robertsii, the team measured toxicity, plant-root colonization, toxin activity and growth on 95 different nutrients. They found that the strains split into two groups, described in the news release as follows:

• Sleepers: The fungal strains that diverged early (at least 6 million years ago) behaved like “sleepers.” They kill insects slowly but pour resources into multiplying inside the host and producing huge numbers of spores, allowing them to survive until they encounter another host. 
• Creepers: Fungal strains that diverged more recently behave like “creepers.” They germinate quickly on both insect skin and plant roots, kill rapidly, often deploy paralyzing toxins and grow as creeping threads from insect cadavers onto nearby roots, rather than forming spores.
  

“Instead of forcing fungi to choose between being insect killers or plant partners, evolution appears to have favored strains that are simply better at making use of whatever resources they encounter,” Dr. St. Leger said. “Their versatility begins with metabolism.”

The research is leading to learning more about how to harness these two groups to better control not only crop and greenhouse pests, but structural pests, too. The news release notes that “broadly metabolizing strains of fungi could provide rapid suppression of insect pests,” while the fungal strains that produce large numbers of spores “may be better suited for longer-term pest control.”

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from Pest Management Professional https://www.mypmp.net/study-well-fed-fungus-improves-in-pest-control/
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