Cordyceps

Cordyceps
Cordyceps militaris
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Fungi
Division:	Ascomycota
Class:	Sordariomycetes
Order:	Hypocreales
Family:	Cordycipitaceae
Genus:	Cordyceps Fr. (1818)
Type species
Cordyceps militaris (L.) Fr. (1818)

Cordyceps /ˈkɔːrdɪsɛps/ is a genus of ascomycete fungi (sac fungi) that includes about 750 species worldwide, 200 of these species are parasitic. Diverse variants of cordyceps have had more than 1,500 years of use in Chinese medicine.^[1] Most Cordyceps species are endoparasitoids, parasitic mainly on insects and other arthropods (they are thus entomopathogenic fungi); a few are parasitic on other fungi.^[2]

The generic name Cordyceps is derived from the ancient Greek κορδύλη kordýlē, meaning "club", and the Latin -ceps, meaning "-headed".^[3] The genus has a worldwide distribution, with most of the known species^[4] being from Asia (Nepal, China, Japan, Bhutan, Korea, Vietnam, and Thailand).

There are two recognized subgenera:^[5]

• Cordyceps subgen. Cordyceps Fr. 1818^[6]
• Cordyceps subgen. Cordylia Tul. & C. Tul. 1865^[7]

Cordyceps sensu stricto are the teleomorphs of a number of anamorphic, entomopathogenic fungus "genera" such as Beauveria (Cordyceps bassiana), Septofusidium, and Lecanicillium.^[8]

Cordyceps subgen. Epichloe was at one time a subgenus, but is now regarded as a separate genus, Epichloë.^[5]

Cordyceps subgen. Ophiocordyceps was at one time a subgenus defined by morphology. Nuclear DNA sampling done in 2007 shows that members, including "C. sinensis" and "C. unilateralis", as well as some others not placed in the subgenus, were distantly related to most of the remainder of species then placed in Cordyceps (e.g. the type species C. militaris). As a result, it became its own genus, absorbing new members.^[8][9]

The 2007 study also peeled off Metacordyceps (anamorph Metarhizium, Pochonia) and Elaphocordyceps. A number of species remain unclearly assigned and provisionally retained in Cordyceps sensu lato.^[8]

The following species are recognised in the genus Cordyceps:^[10]

When Cordyceps attacks a host, the mycelium 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. These, in turn, contain thread-like ascospores, which usually break into fragments and are presumably infective.^[11]

Polysaccharide components and cordycepin isolated from C. militaris are under basic research, but more advanced clinical research has been limited and too low in quality to identify any therapeutic potential of cordyceps components.^[12]

Along with Ophiocordyceps, Cordyceps has long been used in traditional Chinese medicine in the belief it can be used to treat diseases.^[13] There is no strong scientific evidence for such uses.^[12]

Cordyceps has appeared throughout popular culture:

• In the video game series The Last of Us (2013–present) and its television adaptation (2023–present), a Cordyceps fungus infects humans, causing a zombie apocalypse and the collapse of human civilization.^[14][15]

• It is the cause of the pandemic that wipes out most of humanity in Mike Carey's postapocalyptic novel The Girl with All the Gifts (2014) and its film adaptation (2016).^[16]
• In the book The Ghost Woods by C. J. Cooke, a Cordyceps fungus gains sentience and uses human hosts to manipulate their behaviour into helping it reproduce by finding further hosts.

• 
  Cordyceps beginning its fruiting growth from a wasp
• 
  Cordyceps militaris
• 
  Cordyceps militaris
• 
  Cordyceps ophioglossoides

• Medicinal fungi

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