PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Increasingly changing climates and ever-growing population sizes paint a worrisome picture of future food scarcity across the globe. Of the potential ways to combat what in many countries is already a problem today, biological pest control is a sustainable approach to ensure crop safety from pest damage. In the biotechnological process from fermentation, to formulation, to desiccation, and finally to storage of the finished biocontrol product, the low desiccation tolerance and shelf life of the biological component is one of the main challenges to overcome. Entomopathogenic fungi, popular and established biocontrol agents, are no exception to this. In many species, a tradeoff between ease of mass production and the shelf life of fungal propagules takes place. Blastospores are easily produced in high quantities, but the desiccation necessary to ensure a sufficient shelf life of blastospore products has a significant impact on blastospore survival. In comparison with other propagule types, blastospores are especially vulnerable to desiccation, so that measures to increase shelf life for successful commercialization must be taken. Fortunately, the multifaceted production process of blastospore biocontrol agents leaves room for vastly different approaches to do so. This review showcases studies from several approaches and puts them into context with the cellular effects of desiccation. The review also evaluates the given literature to facilitate the identification of impactful studies for future blastospore research.