Biorational insecticides of natural origin, such as avermectins, spinosins, azadirachtin and afidopyropen, are increasingly used in agriculture. The present paper reviews modern ecological, genomic, and biotechnological approaches to the search for new compounds with insecticidal properties (entomotoxic, antifeedant, and hormonal) produced by fungi of various ecological groups (entomopathogens, soil saprotrophs, endophytes, phytopathogens, and mushrooms). The literature survey showed that insecticidal metabolites of entomopathogenic fungi had not been sufficiently studied, and the majority of well-characterized compounds had showed moderate insecticidal activity. The greatest number of substances with insecticidal properties was found to be produced by soil fungi, mainly from the genera Aspergillus and Penicillium. Metabolites with insecticidal and antifeedant properties were also found in endophytic and phytopathogenic fungi. Low sensitivity of insect pests of stored products (in particular, of grain) to mycotoxins was recorded. Mushrooms were found to be promising producers of antifeedant compounds as well as insecticidal proteins. It is possible to increase the number of substances with insecticidal properties detected in fungi not only by extension of the screening range but also by exploitation of diverse bioassay sytems and model insect species. Mining genomes for secondary metabolite gene clusters and secreted proteins with their subsequent activation by various methods allows for better understanding of the biosynthetic potential of the prospective strains. Efficacy of these studies can be increased with high-throughput techniques of fungal metabolites extraction and further analysis using chromatography and mass spectrometry. Insecticidal proteins detected in fungi can be used in the technologies for development of transgenic plant varieties resistant to pests, or hypervirulent bioinsecticides.

A b s t r a c tThe using of microbiological preparations for plant protection steadily extends in the world. A short list of microbiological preparations that are authorized for applying on the territory of the Russian Federation for insect pest control on crops is presented in the State Catalog of pesticides and agrochemicals. However, the biological preparations allowed for berry crops is very limited in number, and for pine strawberry no one is indicated in the Russian Federation State Catalog. In the represented work the capability of microbiological and other ecologically friendly preparations to control main pests on vegetable (cabbage, carrot, swede), baccate (blackberry, red raspberry, strawberry) crops and potato are considered under the conditions of Leningrad Province. Experiments were carried out in 2005-2014. In the research, we specified norms, terms, frequency, and rate of treatment with microbiological preparations. The tested preparations are created on the basis of different Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner strains (Bitocsibacillin, Lepidocid, Batsikol), entomopathogenic eelworm Steinernema carpocapsae Weiser (Nemabakt), also the laboratory sample based on entomopathogenic fungi Metarhizium anisoplia Metchn. was used. Some agrotechnical methods for insect pests control were investigated too. We studied the effect of various terms of planting, field isolation and distribution of the insect pests on the large territories, and the number on insect pests as influenced by nutrient input during plant growth. In each experiment there was a control variant (without application of any preparations). A chemical or biochemical preparation allowed for use in the territory of the Russian Federation was mostly used as a standard for comparison. The biological efficiency (BE) of the investigated preparations was estimated. It was found out that rather often the microbiological preparations were inferior to the chemical standards by BE. However, Bitocsibacillin and Lepidocid developed and manufactured in the Russian Federation can provide the 90-95 % BE against the cabbage white butterfly. The BE of these preparations against cabbage moth ranged from 60 % to 80 %. The biological efficiency of Batsicol against cruciferous tiddlywinks was 60-80 % when double treatments were used. The BE reached 100 % in control of Colorado beetle larvae with Bitocsibacillin and Batsikol. BE of both Nemabakt and laboratory sample of M. anisoplia in wireworms control varied at 60-80 % levels. On pine strawberry against strawberry blossom weevil the highest BE, comparable with efficiency of Fytoverm preparation, was observed for Batsikol. It was shown that a combination of bioinsecticides and biofungicides can be helpful in pine strawberry pests control. Thus, together with some repellents and agrotechnical methods the biological preparations can provide reliable protection of vegetable and berry crops, and potato against the main insect pests, at least in the conditions of the Leningrad Province.