Fungal diseases are widespread among insects and play a crucial role in naturally regulating insect populations. Mosquitoes, known as vectors for numerous infectious diseases, pose a significant threat to human health. Entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) have emerged as highly promising alternative agents to chemical mosquitocides for controlling mosquitoes at all stages of their life cycle due to their unique infection pathway through direct contact with the insect’s cuticle. In recent years, significant advancements have been made in understanding the infection pathways and pathogenic mechanisms of EPF against mosquitoes. Various strategies involving the use of EPF alone or combinations with other approaches have been employed to target mosquitoes at various developmental stages. Moreover, the application of genetic technologies in fungi has opened up new avenues for enhancing the mosquitocidal efficacy of EPF. This review presents a comprehensive summary of recent advancements in our understanding the pathogenic mechanisms of EPF, their applications in mosquito management, and the combination of EPF with other approaches and employment of transgenic technologies. The biosafety concerns associated with their use and the corresponding approaches are also discussed. The recent progress suggests that EPF have the potential to serve as a future biorational tool for controlling mosquito vectors.

Summary: In most eukaryotes, tetraspanins regulate cellular activities by associating with other membrane components. In phytopathogenic fungi, the tetraspanin Pls1 controls appressorium‐mediated penetration. However, regulation of Pls1 and its associated signalling pathways are not clear. In this study, the MaPls1 gene from the entomopathogenic fungus M etarhizium acridum was functionally characterized. MaPls1 was highly expressed in mycelium and appressorium, and accumulated on the plasma membrane or in the cytoplasm. Compared with a wild‐type strain, the deletion mutant Δ MaPls1 had delayed germination and appressorium formation and impaired turgor pressure on locust wings, but normal germination on medium and non‐host insect matrices. Bioassays showed that Δ MaPls1 had decreased virulence and hyphal body formation in haemolymph when topically inoculated, but was not different from wild type when the insect cuticle was bypassed. Moreover, the ability to grow out of the cuticle was impaired in Δ MaPls1 . Digital gene expression profiling revealed that genes involved in hydrolysing host cuticle and cell wall synthesis and remodelling were downregulated in Δ MaPls1 . MaPls1 participated in crosstalk with signalling pathways such as the cyclic adenosine monophosphate‐dependent protein kinase A and calmodulin‐dependent pathways. Taken together, these results demonstrated the important roles of MaPls1 at the early stage of infection‐associated development in M . acridum .