Purpureocillium

Purpureocillium is a fungal genus in the Ophiocordycipitaceae family. The genus now contains at least 5 species with the type species Purpureocillium lilacinum, a common soil mold. It has been isolated from a wide range of habitats, including cultivated and uncultivated soils, forests, grassland, deserts, estuarine sediments and sewage sludge, and insects. It has also been found in nematode eggs, and occasionally from females of root-knot and cyst nematodes. In addition, it has frequently been detected in the rhizosphere of many crops. The species can grow at a wide range of temperatures – from for a few isolates, with optimal growth in the range . It also has a wide pH tolerance and can grow on a variety of substrates. P. lilacinum has shown promising results for use as a biocontrol agent to control the growth of destructive root-knot nematodes.

==Species and phylogeny== thumb|left|P. atypicola (previously placed in Nomuraea) Species fungorum and GBIF currently list: Purpureocillium atypicola (Yasuda) Spatafora, Hywel-Jones & Luangsa-ard, 2015 Purpureocillium lavendulum Perdomo, Dania García, Gené, Cano & Guarro, 2013 Purpureocillium lilacinum (Thom) Luangsa-ard, Houbraken, Hywel-Jones & Samson, 2011 Purpureocillium roseum Calvillo & Raymundo, 2020 Purpureocillium sodanum Papizadeh, Soudi, Wijayaw., Shahz.Faz. & K.D.Hyde, 2016 Purpureocillium takamizusanense (Kobayasi) S.Ban, Azuma & Hirok.Sato, 2015 a number of unclassified isolates.