Elucidating the Effect of Endophytic Entomopathogenic Fungi on Bread Wheat Growth through Signaling of Immune Response-Related Hormones
Adrián González‐Guzmán, María-Dolores Rey, Emilie Froussart, Enrique Quesada‐Moraga
Abstract
Microbial control of insect and mite pests is a key tool to develop integrated pest management (IPM) and sustainable agriculture. Entomopathogenic fungi (EF) may have associations with the plants, playing additional ecological roles in the rhizosphere, in the phylloplane, and as plant endophytes. Beauveria bassiana 04/01TIP and Metarhizium brunneum 01/58Su are two strains that showed very good results either in pest control or plant growth promotion and would be good candidates to develop mycoinsecticides as an alternative to pesticides. However, deep knowledge about their interaction with the plant would let farmers optimize their use and understand the plant response, enhancing and promoting their broader contribution to IPM and crop production.