Liquid culture fermentation for rapid production of desiccation tolerant blastospores of Beauveria bassiana and Isaria fumosorosea strains.

A major constraint to the commercial use of fungal biocontrol agents is the availability of low-cost production media and processes. Previous attempts in producing Beauveria blastospores using liquid culture fermentation processes required long fermentation times (6-8days) and produced cells that had poor survival after desiccation and storage. In this study, isolates of Beauveria bassiana and Isaria fumosorosea were evaluated for blastospore yield, desiccation tolerance, storage stability, and biocontrol efficacy using fermentation media containing acid hydrolyzed casein or cottonseed flour as the nitrogen source.