Entomopathogen ID: a curated sequence resource for entomopathogenic fungi

We report the development of a publiclyaccessible, curated nucleotide sequence database ofhypocrealean entomopathogenic fungi. The goal is toprovide a platform for users to easily access sequencedata from taxonomic reference strains. The databasecan be used to accurately identify unknown entomopathogenicfungi based on sequence data for avariety of phylogenetically informative loci. Thedatabase provides full multi-locus sequence alignmentcapabilities. The initial release contains data compiledfor 525 strains covering the phylogenetic diversity ofthree important entomopathogenic families:Clavicipitaceae, Cordycipitaceae, and Ophiocordycipitaceae.Furthermore, Entomopathogen ID can beexpanded to other fungal clades of insect pathogens, assequence data becomes available. The database willallow isolate characterisation and evolutionary analyses.We contend that this freely available, webaccessibledatabase will facilitate the broader communityto accurately identify fungal entomopathogens,which will allow users tocommunicate research results more effectively.Keywords Beauveria Cordyceps Isaria Metacordyceps Metarhizium MLS