Dataset Information

Thitarodes shambalaensis sp. nov. (Lepidoptera, Hepialidae): a new host of the caterpillar fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis supported by genome-wide SNP data.

ABSTRACT: A new species of ghost moth, Thitarodes shambalaensis sp. nov., is described from Yanzigou glacier, Mt. Gongga, Sichuan, China. The species is a host of the economically important caterpillar fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis. Establishment of this new species is supported by morphology and genetic differentiation measured in a CO1 phylogeny and in genome-wide SNP coverage. A summary tree from 538 sequences of different genetic markers from Thitarodes (including sequences extracted from caterpillar fungus sclerotium samples) support the genus Thitarodes as a monophyletic group, and indicate that Thitarodes is the host genus for O. sinensis. Sampling efforts so far have centered on half of the known phylogenetic diversity of Thitarodes, with some species-level clusters (separated by < 2.5% genetic distance) containing 17 described species. Fifteen clusters are known from either a single "orphan taxon" or a single sequence from a caterpillar fungus sclerotium sample. We provide suggestions for building a more robust phylogeny of the genus Thitarodes and highlight some of the conservation threats that species from this genus face due to unprecedented habitat exploitation.

SUBMITTER: Wang Z

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6848235 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Thitarodes shambalaensis sp. nov. (Lepidoptera, Hepialidae): a new host of the caterpillar fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis supported by genome-wide SNP data.

Wang Zhengyang Z Zhuang Hailing H Wang Min M Pierce Naomi E NE

ZooKeys 20191104

A new species of ghost moth, Thitarodes shambalaensis sp. nov., is described from Yanzigou glacier, Mt. Gongga, Sichuan, China. The species is a host of the economically important caterpillar fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis. Establishment of this new species is supported by morphology and genetic differentiation measured in a CO1 phylogeny and in genome-wide SNP coverage. A summary tree from 538 sequences of different genetic markers from Thitarodes (including sequence ...[more]

PMID: 31736619

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Project description:The Chinese cordyceps is a unique and valuable parasitic complex of Thitarodes/Hepialus ghost moths and the Ophiocordyceps sinensis fungus for medicine and health foods from the Tibetan Plateau. During artificial cultivation of Chinese cordyceps, the induction of blastospores into hyphae is a prerequisite for mummification of the infected Thitarodes larvae. To explore the microbial involvement in the induction of mycelia-blastospore transition, the microbiota of the hemolymph and gut from Thitarodes xiaojinensis larvae with or without injected O. sinensis blastospores were investigated by culture-dependent and -independent methods. Twenty-five culturable bacterial species and 14 fungal species, together with 537 bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and 218 fungal OTUs, were identified from the hemolymph and gut of samples from five stages including living larvae without injected fungi (A) or with high blastospore load (B), mummifying larvae without mycelia coating (C), freshly mummifying larvae coated with mycelia (D), and completely mummified larvae with mycelia (E). Two culturable bacterial species (Serratia plymuthica, Serratia proteamaculans), and 47 bacterial and 15 fungal OTUs were considered as shared species. The uninfected larval hemolymph contained 13 culturable bacterial species but no fungal species, together with 164 bacterial and 73 fungal OTUs. To our knowledge, this is the first study to detect large bacterial communities from the hemolymph of healthy insect larvae. When the living larvae contained high blastospore load, the culturable bacterial community was sharply inhibited in the hemolymph but the bacterial and fungal community greatly increased in the gut. In general, high blastospore load increased bacterial diversity but sharply decreased fungal diversity in the hemolymph and gut by OTUs. The bacterial loads of four culturable species (Chryseobacterium sp., Pseudomonas fragi, S. plymuthica, S. proteamaculans) increased significantly and O. sinensis and Pseudomonas spp. became dominant microbes, when the infected larvae became mummified, indicating their possible involvement in the larval mummification process. The discovery of many opportunistic pathogenic bacteria in the hemolymph of the healthy larvae, the larval microbial diversity influenced by O. sinensis challenge and the involvement of dominant bacteria during larval mummification process provide new insight into the infection and mummification mechanisms of O. sinensis in its Thitarodes hosts.

Project description:The caterpillar fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis is one of the most valuable medicinal fungi in the world, and it requires host insects in family Hepialidae (Lepidoptera) to complete its life cycle. However, the genetic diversity and phylogeographic structures of the host insects remain to be explored. We analyzed the genetic diversity and temporal and spatial distribution patterns of genetic variation of the host insects throughout the O. sinensis distribution. Abundant haplotype and nucleotide diversity mainly existed in the areas of Nyingchi, ShangriLa, and around the edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where are considered as the diversity center or micro-refuges of the host insects of O. sinensis. However, there was little genetic variation among host insects from 72.1% of all populations, indicating that the host species composition might be relatively simple in large-scale O. sinensis populations. All host insects are monophyletic except for those from four O. sinensis populations around Qinghai Lake. Significant phylogeographic structure (NST>GST, P<0.05) was revealed for the monophyletic host insects, and the three major phylogenetic groups corresponded with specific geographical areas. The divergence of most host insects was estimated to have occurred at ca. 3.7 Ma, shortly before the rapid uplift of the QTP. The geographical distribution and star-like network of the haplotypes implied that most host insects were derived from the relicts of a once-widespread host that subsequently became fragmented. Neutrality tests, mismatch distribution analysis, and expansion time estimation confirmed that most host insects presented recent demographic expansions that began ca. 0.118 Ma in the late Pleistocene. Therefore, the genetic diversity and distribution of the present-day insects should be attributed to effects of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau uplift and glacial advance/retreat cycles during the Quaternary ice age. These results provide valuable information to guide the protection and sustainable use of these host insects as well as O. sinensis.

Project description:Ophiocordyceps sinensis is a widely known medicinal entomogenous fungus, which parasitizes the soil-borne larva of Thitarodes (Hepialidae, Lepidoptera) distributed in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and its adjacent areas. Previous research has involved artificial cultivation of Chinese cordyceps (the fungus-caterpillar complex), but it is difficult to achieve large-scale cultivation because the coupling relation between the crucial microbes and their hosts is not quite clear. To clarify the influence of the internal microbial community on the occurrence of Chinese cordyceps, in this study, the unfertilized eggs of Thitarodes of different sampling sites were chosen to analyze the bacterial and fungal communities via 16S rRNA and ITS sequencing for the first time. The results showed that for bacteria, 348 genera (dominant genera include Wolbachia, Spiroplasma, Carnobacterium, Sphingobium, and Acinetobacter) belonging to 26 phyla (dominant phyla include Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Tenericutes, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, and Bacteroidetes), 58 classes, 84 orders, and 120 families were identified from 1294 operational taxonomic units (OTUs). The dominant bacterial genus (Spiroplasma) may be an important bacterial factor promoting the occurrence of Chinese cordyceps. For fungi, 289 genera, mainly including Aureobasidium, Candida, and Cryptococcus, were identified, and they belonged to 5 phyla (Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Chytridiomycota, Glomeromycota, and Zygomycota), 26 classes, 82 orders, and 165 families. Eight bacterial OTUs and 12 fungal OTUs were shared among all of the detected samples and were considered as core species. Among them, Wolbachia, Spiroplasma, Carnobacterium, Aureobasidium, and Phoma may play important roles in helping the host larva to digest foods, adapt to extreme environments, or resist pathogens. On the other hand, the external (soil) microbial community was synchronously and comparatively analyzed. Comparative analysis revealed that external microbial factors might play a more significant role in the occurrence of Chinese cordyceps, owing to the significant differences revealed by α-diversity and β-diversity analyses among different groups. In summary, the results of this study may contribute to the large-scale cultivation of Chinese cordyceps.

Dataset Information

Thitarodes shambalaensis sp. nov. (Lepidoptera, Hepialidae): a new host of the caterpillar fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis supported by genome-wide SNP data.

Publications

<i>Thitarodes shambalaensis</i> sp. nov. (Lepidoptera, Hepialidae): a new host of the caterpillar fungus <i>Ophiocordyceps sinensis</i> supported by genome-wide SNP data.

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