Abstract
Cordyceps sensu lato is a genus of arthropod-pathogenic fungi, which have been used traditionally as medicinal in Asia. Within the genus, Ophiocordyceps sinensis is the most coveted and expensive species in China. Nevertheless, harvesting wild specimens has become a challenge given that natural populations of the fungus are decreasing and because large-scale culture of it has not yet been achieved. The worldwide demand for products derived from cultivable fungal species with medicinal properties has increased recently. In this study, we propose a new species, Cordyceps nidus, which parasitizes underground nests of trapdoor spiders. This species is phylogenetically related to Cordyceps militaris, Cordyceps pruinosa, and a sibling species of Cordyceps caloceroides. It is found in tropical rainforests from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador. We also investigated the medicinal potential of this fungus based on its biochemical properties when grown on four different culture media. The metabolic profile particularly that of nucleosides, in polar and non-polar extracts was determined by UPLC, and then correlated to their antimicrobial activity and total phenolic content. The metabolome showed a high and significant dependency on the substrate used for fungal growth. The mass intensities of nucleosides and derivative compounds were higher in natural culture media in comparison to artificial culture media. Among these compounds, cordycepin was the predominant, showing the potential use of this species as an alternative to O. sinensis. Furthermore, methanol fractions showed antimicrobial activity against gram-positive bacteria, and less than 3.00 mg of gallic acid equivalents per g of dried extract were obtained when assessing its total phenolic content by modified Folin-Ciocalteu method. The presence of polyphenols opens the possibility of further exploring the antioxidant capacity and the conditions that may enhance this characteristic. The metabolic composition and biochemical activity indicate potential use of C. nidus in pharmaceutical applications.
Highlights
Consumer demand for natural products is growing worldwide
Our results showed that C. nidus produced a high number of nucleosides, especially in natural culture media, showing its potential use as a therapeutic agent due to the different biological activities reported for these compounds [11]
Better results for antioxidant production have been obtained by inducing the formation of fruiting bodies [7,8, 13]. This is the first study that attempts to address the systematics of Cordyceps which parasitize Mygalomorpha spiders in the Neotropics, and helps to clarify the taxonomy of specimens in Metabolomic profile of Cordyceps nidus, a pathogen of spiders the pictures tagged as Cordyceps (Ophiocordyceps) caloceroides and Cordyceps nidus published on the internet
Summary
Consumer demand for natural products is growing worldwide. Fungi represent an important source of novel bioactive entities for drug development and therapeutic agents [1]. The lepidopteran pathogen Ophiocordyceps sinensis (syn.Cordyceps sinensis) is perhaps the most widely renowned species with pharmaceutical properties [2] This fungus is only found buried deep in the ground parasitizing larvae of the ghost moth Thitarodes spp (Lepidoptera: Hepialide) up to 5.000 meters of altitude in the eastern and southern parts of the Tibetan Plateau [3]. Its large-scale cultivation has not yet been achieved due to the fungus’ strong host dependence [6] Other species such as Cordyceps militaris and Cordyceps pruinosa which parasitize many genera of lepidopteran larvae have received further attention because they are generalist and have a similar metabolic composition as O. sinensis [4, 7,8,9]
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