Cordyceps is a genus of fungi that includes over 500 species, which are pathogens of insects and fungi. This study will conduct a monographic study of the genus and will provide a more accurate basis for recognizing and delineating species. It will involve extensive field collecting of specimens and will improve our knowledge of their distributions in nature. Molecular and morphological data will be collected from these organisms and analyzed to test current hypotheses of species based solely on morphology. Cordyceps is particularly abundant in East Asia and eastern North America, thus this project will include collaborations with Asian scientists. This research will train students and postdoctoral research associates in taxonomy of fungi, an understudied group of organisms for which additional expertise and researchers are needed. This project also contains an extensive World Wide Web component with information on all species of Cordyceps made freely available to the public via the Internet.
Numerous species of Cordyceps are important in agriculture and medicine. Many species of Cordyceps are pathogens of insects and are promising candidates for biological control of insect pests. Biological control is an active area of research that may lessen our dependence on and environmental impact of pesticides. In addition, many species of Cordyceps and the Clavicipitaceae produce numerous biologically active compounds that function in pathogenicity. Some of these compounds have been exploited for use in medicine (e.g., Cyclosporin A from C. subsessilis), but countless others await discovery. An accurate understanding of the species boundaries of these fungi will provide a predictive framework in which more focused and directed research in other fields of biology (e.g., biological control, drug discovery, etc.) can proceed.
