Ophiocordycipitaceae

The Ophiocordycipitaceae are a family of fungi in the order Hypocreales. Most species parasitise arthropods, and a group of them parasitises underground fungi of the genus Elaphomyces ^{1Reference 1Sung GH et al. · 2007Phylogenetic classification of Cordyceps and the clavicipitaceous fungi — taxonomyView study →}.

The family was named in 2007, when a DNA study of over 160 species split the old genus Cordyceps into several lineages. The genus Ophiocordyceps gave the family its name ^{1Reference 1Sung GH et al. · 2007Phylogenetic classification of Cordyceps and the clavicipitaceous fungi — taxonomyView study →}.

Cordyceps, the caterpillar fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis, is the family’s medicinal member. It grows from the buried larvae of ghost moths on the Tibetan Plateau and in the Himalaya, and is used in Chinese medicine as a tonic.

Most cordyceps supplements contain a different fungus. Cordyceps militaris, which is cultivated at scale, belongs to the neighbouring family Cordycipitaceae ^{1Reference 1Sung GH et al. · 2007Phylogenetic classification of Cordyceps and the clavicipitaceous fungi — taxonomyView study →}.

The family’s other contribution to medicine is cyclosporin, the immunosuppressant drug. It was first isolated from Tolypocladium inflatum, a parasite of beetle larvae ^{2Reference 2Bushley KE et al. · 2013The genome of Tolypocladium inflatum: evolution, organization, and expression of the cyclosporin biosynthetic gene cluster — genomicsView study →}. T. inflatum is the asexual form of Elaphocordyceps subsessilis, which the 2007 study placed in this family ^{1,2Reference 1Sung GH et al. · 2007Phylogenetic classification of Cordyceps and the clavicipitaceous fungi — taxonomyView study →Reference 2Bushley KE et al. · 2013The genome of Tolypocladium inflatum: evolution, organization, and expression of the cyclosporin biosynthetic gene cluster — genomicsView study →}.