Genomic signatures of host-range divergence in the generalist Beauveria bassiana and the specialist Beauveria brongniartii
Alexandra M. Kortsinoglou, Hannah Popp-Embleton, Jürg Enkerli, Hermann Strasser, Vassili N. Kouvelis · 2026
Read Genomic signatures of host-range divergence in the generalist Beauveria bassiana and the specialist Beauveria brongniartii by Alexandra M. Kortsinoglou, Hannah Popp-Embleton, Jürg Enkerli, Hermann Strasser, Vassili N. Kouvelis (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13562122.txt.
Description
Alexandra Kortsinoglou and four co-authors compare the genomes of two insect-killing fungi, in this 2026 study. One is a cosmopolitan generalist, the other a specialist, and the team asks what host range is written in DNA. Farmers spray Beauveria fungi to kill crop pests. The generalist infects a range of insects and lives in plants as well; its cousin concentrates on soil-dwelling beetle grubs.
Sequencing both with long reads and comparing across strains, the team found a paradox: the shared skeleton is identical. The enzymes for digesting plant and insect material match gene for gene. The differences concentrate in the chemistry factories, the gene clusters that brew their poisons. There, the clusters tied to virulence are rebuilt between the species. A layer of gene families found in one species only adds to the split. The generalist's secret, it seems, is not a bigger toolbox but different poisons.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Alexandra M. Kortsinoglou, Hannah Popp-Embleton, Jürg Enkerli, Hermann Strasser, Vassili N. Kouvelis |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 84 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |