Beauveria bassiana is an opportunistic fungal pathogen that has evolved a spectrum of strategies for the successful infection and degradation of a broad range of arthropod hosts. Entomopathogenic fungi are able to infect living insects, and scientists since Pasteur have suggested their use for controlling a variety of agricultural, invasive, and nuisance pests. Aside from their use in biocontrol regimes, Beauveria sp are the second most widely used whole cell eukaryotic biocatalysts, and are responsible for a range of biological transformations and remediations that remain elusive to chemical and synthetic methods. Nonetheless, the molecular mechanisms of fungal entomopathogenicity are largely unknown. The project objectives are to isolate and annotate B. bassiana expressed sequence tags (ESTs). Research derived from the project will yield in depth analyses of gene expression in B. bassiana, providing a substantial sequence database for molecular characterization and gene discovery. This information will be made available to the scientific community from a source (NCBI) website. The project includes curriculum development in order to present students, at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, theoretical and practical lessons in bioinformatics. Data generated from the research mission will be used to provide a hands-on learning tool for students in bioinformatics and genomics. The laboratory is dedicated to actively providing opportunities for underrepresented groups, and has integrated these aims in hosting students at the graduate, undergraduate, and high school levels.
