Entomopathogenic fungi have high potential in controlling harmful pests in agriculture and forest, but their slow progress in insect killing and low thermotolerance are major impediments to successful industrialization. Two possible efforts were done to overcome these problems. First the use of supernatant of a Beauveria bassiana isolate reduced the population of cotton aphid with a dosage-dependant manner, which allowed a quality control factor to be determined for the evaluation of the supernatant as the first step of a development. Chitinase was one of the major pathogenesis-related enzymes in the supernatant. A mineral material-mediated chitinase precipitation method was established to enhance the thermotolerance of chitinase. The use of supernatant can be a quicker way to control aphids. Secondly, to increase thermotolerance the effects of nutritional manipulation of culture media and oil-coating of conidia of B. bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae isolates were investigated, followed by pairing of similar isolates. Recently, thermo-susceptible B.bassiana mutants were generated by a fungal transformation platform to discover thermotolerance-related genes, which are now underdetermination. Genetic information on fungal thermotolerance is going to be clear in near the future.

• Jae Su Kim(Department of Agricultural Biology, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, Chonbuk National University)