An important mechanism for insect pest control should be the use of fungal entomopathogens. Even though these organisms have been studied for more than 100 years, their effective use in the field remains elusive. Recently, however, it has been discovered that many of these entomopathogenic fungi play additional roles in nature.They are endophytes, antagonists of plant pathogens, associates with the rhizosphere, and possibly even plant growth promoting agents. These findings indicate that the ecological role of these fungi in the environment is not fully understood and limits our ability to employ them successfully for pest management. In this paper, we review the recently discovered roles played by many entomopathogenic fungi and propose new research strategies focused on alternate uses for these fungi. It seems likely that these agents can be used in multiple roles in protecting plants from pests and diseases and at the same time promoting plant growth.

Coffea arabica L. (arabica coffee), the only tetraploid species in the genus Coffea, represents the majority of the world's coffee production and has a significant contribution to Nicaragua's economy. The present paper was conducted to determine the genetic diversity of arabica coffee in Nicaragua for its conservation and breeding values. Twenty-six populations that represent eight varieties in Nicaragua were investigated using simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. A total of 24 alleles were obtained from the 12 loci investigated across 260 individual plants. The total Nei's gene diversity (H T) and the within-population gene diversity (H S) were 0.35 and 0.29, respectively, which is comparable with that previously reported from other countries and regions. Among the varieties, the highest diversity was recorded in the variety Catimor. Analysis of variance (AMOVA) revealed that about 87% of the total genetic variation was found within populations and the remaining 13% differentiate the populations (F ST = 0.13; P < 0.001). The variation among the varieties was also significant. The genetic variation in Nicaraguan coffee is significant enough to be used in the breeding programs, and most of this variation can be conserved through ex situ conservation of a low number of populations from each variety.

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La broca del café, Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) es la principal plaga del cultivo del café (Coffea spp.) y colonizó recientemente este cultivo en la comarca Ngäbe-Buglè. Una de las alternativas de manejo de esta plaga es a través de sus enemigos naturales, por lo que el objetivo de este estudio fue caracterizar morfofisiológica y molecularmente aislados de hongos entomopatógenos nativos, colectados en la comarca Ngäbe-Buglè y seleccionar los más promisorios, para su inclusión en programas de manejo agroecológico de plagas. La identificación molecular se hizo mediante la secuenciación de la región del espaciador transcrito interno (ITS, del inglés Internal Transcribed Spacer) (ITS 1 y 2 incluyendo 5.8 S). Se identificaron 13 aislados pertenecientes a Beauveria bassiana (Vullevein), y un aislado de Purpureocillium lilacinum (Thom) Luangsa-ard, Hou- braken, Hywel-Jones & Samson. Adicionalmente, se incluyó un aislado (RS-Ij006) de Isaria javanica (= Cordyceps javanica (Frieder. & Bally) Samson & Hywel-Jones) de la colección de hongos entomopatógenos del Laboratorio de Entomología del IDIAP, David, para la determinación de las características morfológicas. Para la determinación de las características morfológicas se utilizaron tres medios de cultivo: Papa-Dextrosa-Agar, Malta-Dextrosa Agar y Sabouraud-Dextrosa-Agar. Se evaluó la mortalidad y se obtuvo el Tiempo Letal Medio (TL50)). Los mayores porcentajes de mortalidad de H. hampei, al día 15 después de la inoculación, se observaron con los aislamientos RS-Ij006 y D-Bb1400 con 100 %; seguidos por D-Bb1398 con 98.90 % y D-Bb1350 con 93.3 %. Los menores registros del TL50 se obtuvieron con los aislados de D-1388 (Purpureocillium lilacinum) con 3.52 días y RS-Ij006 con 3.98 días, seguidos por D-Bb1350 con 6.58 días. Los aislados a los que el insecto presentó menor susceptibilidad fueron D-1391, D-1399, D-Bb1397, D-Bb1412 y D-Bb1395, D-Bb1392, estos necesitaron más tiempo para alcanzar el 100 % de mortalidad de adultos de H. hampei y el TL50 fue superior a 11 días.