Recent Advances in Life History Transition with Nematode-Trapping Fungus Arthrobotrys oligospora and Its Application in Sustainable Agriculture

Parasitic nematodes cause great annual loss in the agricultural industry globally. Arthrobotrys oligospora is the most prevalent and common nematode-trapping fungus (NTF) in the environment and the candidate for the control of plant- and animal-parasitic nematodes. A. oligospora is also the first recognized and intensively studied NTF species. This review highlights the recent research advances of A. oligospora as a model to study the biological signals of the switch from saprophytism to predation and their sophisticated mechanisms for interacting with their invertebrate hosts, which is of vital importance for improving the engineering of this species as an effective biocontrol fungus. The application of A. oligospora in industry and agriculture, especially as biological control agents for sustainable purposes, was summarized, and we discussed the increasing role of A. oligospora in studying its sexual morph and genetic transformation in complementing biological control research.