Managing the plant microbiome for biocontrol fungi: examples from Hypocreales

- Numerous species throughout Hypocreales are used for the biological control of plant diseases and pests.
- Genome data is available for many species to understand genetics of fungal-host and fungal-plant interactions.
- Understanding the ecological interactions of plant-associated microbiomes is a key component to sustainably increasing agricultural productivity.

Feeding an increasing global population requires continued improvements in agricultural efficiency and productivity. Meeting estimated future production levels requires the adoption of practices that increase output without environmental degradation associated with external inputs to supplement nutrition or control pests. Enriching the community of microbes associated with plants in agricultural systems for those providing ecosystem services such as pest control is one possible component towards achieving sustainable productivity increases. In this review we explore the current state of knowledge for Hypocreales fungi used in biological control. Advances in understanding the field ecology, diversity and genetic determinants of host range and virulence of hypocrealean fungi provide the means to improve their efficacy.