Metabolic engineering and adaptive evolution of wood-degrading fungi for biopesticide development and sustainable bioprocessing

Overview

This research program explores the use of metabolic engineering and adaptive evolution in wood-degrading fungi to address three interconnected sustainability challenges: water recovery from waste, production of chemicals and fuels from renewable resources, and biopesticide production. The central hypothesis is that competitive interactions between aggressive wood-degrading fungi, when grown on insect pest cadavers and later on live pests as a sole nutrient source, will trigger shifts in fungal metabolism over multiple generations, potentially yielding strains with entomopathogenic (insect-killing) traits.

The work builds on prior findings that combative fungal interactions activate aggressive nutrient sequestration mechanisms. Because insect exoskeletons and fungal cell walls share chitin as a primary structural component, applying competitive pressure among fungi on chitin-rich pest substrates may select for strains capable of degrading and utilizing pest biomass, opening a biological route to biopesticide development.

Technical specifications

• Approach: Competitive co-culture of aggressive wood-degrading fungi on ground insect pests, followed by moistened cadavers, and subsequently on freshly dead and live pests of leafy vegetables
• Selection regime: Adaptive evolution across 45 to 50 generations to drive metabolic shifts toward entomopathogenicity
• Analytical methods: Assessment of pest colonization and profiling of upregulated metabolites and proteins linked to entomopathogenic activity
• Targeted outcomes: Fungal strains with enhanced ability to degrade chitin-rich insect exoskeletons and serve as biocontrol agents
• Broader applications: Sustainable water recovery from waste streams and conversion of renewable substrates into chemicals and fuels using metabolically versatile fungal strains

Technology readiness level

This is an early-stage, exploratory study focused on hypothesis generation and strain selection. No entomopathogenic strains have yet been developed; the work begins with screening competitive interactions among wood-degrading fungi on pest substrates. Future validation will progress from in vitro cadaver studies to live pest colonization assays over multiple fungal generations. The program is positioned at the fundamental research stage, with potential downstream applications in biopesticide formulation, bio-based chemical production, and wastewater valorization requiring further development and scale-up.