''Cordyceps'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of ascomycete

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately fr ...

(sac fungi) that includes about 600 species. Most ''Cordyceps'' species are endoparasitoids, parasitic mainly on insects and other

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chiti ...

s (they are thus entomopathogenic fungi); a few are parasitic on other fungi. The generic name ''Cordyceps'' is derived from the Greek word κορδύλη ''kordýlē'', meaning "club", and the Greek word κεφαλή ''cephali'', meaning "head". The

has a worldwide distribution and most of the approximately 600 species that have been described are from Asia (notably

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is ma ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic ...

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...

, and

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

). ''Cordyceps'' species are particularly abundant and diverse in humid temperate and tropical jungles.

Subtaxa

There are two recognized

subgenera In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between ...

: *''Cordyceps'' subgen. ''Cordyceps'' Fr. 1818 *''Cordyceps'' subgen. ''Cordylia'' Tul. & C. Tul. 1865 ''Cordyceps'' subgen. ''Epichloe'' was at one time a subgenus, but is now regarded as a separate genus, ''

Epichloë ''Epichloë'' is a genus of ascomycete fungi forming an endophytic symbiosis with grasses. Grass choke disease is a symptom in grasses induced by some ''Epichloë'' species, which form spore-bearing mats (stromata) on tillers and suppress the ...

''. ''C. sinensis'' was shown in 2007 by nuclear DNA sampling to be unrelated to most of the rest of the members of the genus, and as a result it was renamed '' Ophiocordyceps sinensis'' and placed in a new family, the

Ophiocordycipitaceae Ophiocordycipitaceae is a family of parasitic fungi in the Ascomycota, class Sordariomycetes. Genera *'' Blistum'' *'' Didymobotryopsis'' *'' Haptocillium'' *'' Harposporium'' (Anamorphic) *'' Ophiocordyceps''; anamorphic genera: **''Hirsutella' ...

, as was "''

Cordyceps unilateralis ''Ophiocordyceps unilateralis'', commonly known as zombie-ant fungus, is an insect-pathogenic fungus, discovered by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace in 1859, and currently found predominantly in tropical forest ecosystems. ''O. unil ...

''". ''Cordyceps'' and ''

Metacordyceps ''Metacordyceps'' is a genus of fungi in the family Clavicipitaceae. The anamorph In mycology, the terms teleomorph, anamorph, and holomorph apply to portions of the life cycles of fungi in the phyla Ascomycota and Basidiomycota: *Teleomo ...

'' spp. are now thought to be the teleomorphs of a number of anamorphic, entomopathogenic fungus "genera" such as: '' Beauveria'' ('' Cordyceps bassiana''), '' Lecanicillium, Metarhizium'' and ''Nomuraea''.

Biology

When a ''Cordyceps'' fungus attacks a host, the

mycelium Mycelium (plural mycelia) is a root-like structure of a fungus consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae. Fungal colonies composed of mycelium are found in and on soil and many other substrates. A typical single spore germinates ...

invades and eventually replaces the host tissue, while the elongated fruit body ( ascocarp) may be cylindrical, branched, or of complex shape. The ascocarp bears many small, flask-shaped perithecia containing

asci ASCI or Asci may refer to: * Advertising Standards Council of India * Asci, the plural of ascus, in fungal anatomy * Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative * American Society for Clinical Investigation * Argus Sour Crude Index * Association of ...

. These, in turn, contain thread-like ascospores, which usually break into fragments and are presumably infective.

Research

Polysaccharide Polysaccharides (), or polycarbohydrates, are the most abundant carbohydrates found in food. They are long chain polymeric carbohydrates composed of monosaccharide units bound together by glycosidic linkages. This carbohydrate can react with w ...

components and cordycepin are under basic research and have been isolated from '' C. militaris''.

Sources and uses

Cordyceps are used in

traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of acti ...

, but there is currently no

scientific evidence Scientific evidence is evidence that serves to either support or counter a scientific theory or hypothesis, although scientists also use evidence in other ways, such as when applying theories to practical problems. "Discussions about empirical ev ...

that their use has any clinical effect on human diseases.

In popular culture

The ''Cordyceps'' fungus is depicted as a core plot element in the video games '' The Last of Us'' (2013), '' The Last of Us: Left Behind'' (2014), and '' The Last of Us Part II'' (2020), in which a mutated form of the fungus infects humans and causes the collapse of civilization. In the video game '' Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling'', ''Cordyceps'' infected bugs are enemies that can be encountered. ''Cordyceps'' also serve as a major plot point in the story. In the novel ''

The Girl with All the Gifts ''The Girl with All the Gifts'' is a science-fiction novel by M. R. Carey, published in June 2014 by Orbit Books. It is based on his 2013 Edgar Award-nominated short story ''Iphigenia In Aulis'' and was written concurrently with the screenplay ...

'' (2014) and its film adaptation (2016), a mutation of ''Ophiocordyceps unilateralis'' is responsible for an infection which infects humans and causes the collapse of civilization.

Gallery

File:Cordyceps.jpg, ''Cordyceps'' beginning its growth from a wasp File:Cordycepsmilitaris.jpg, ''Cordyceps militaris'' File:Puppenkernkeule.jpg, ''Cordyceps militaris'' File:Cordyceps ophioglossoides 02.JPG, '' Cordyceps ophioglossoides''

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q312238 Edible fungi Parasitic fungi Sordariomycetes genera Taxa named by Elias Magnus Fries Taxa described in 1818