Tolypocladium inflatum

Tolypocladium inflatum is an ascomycete fungus originally isolated from a Norwegian soil sample that, under certain conditions, produces the immunosuppressant drug ciclosporin. In its sexual stage (teleomorph) it is a parasite on scarab beetles. It forms a small, compound ascocarp that arises from the cadaver of its host beetle. In its asexual stage (anamorph) it is a white mold that grows on soil. It is more commonly found in its asexual stage and this is the stage that was originally given the name "Tolypocladium inflatum".

The fungus from which ciclosporin was first isolated was originally misidentified as Trichoderma polysporum.^[5] Gams later showed the fungus belonged in a new genus of molds, Tolypocladium, and he coined the name Tolypocladium inflatum for the ciclosporin fungus.^[6] In 1983, Bissett found T. inflatum was the same as Pachybasium niveum, and since the older name would have priority under the rules of botanical nomenclature, Bissett made the combination Tolypocladium niveum.^[7] However, because of the economic importance of the fungus in the pharmaceutical industry, the name T. inflatum was later formally conserved to avoid confusion, so today the correct name of the mold that produces ciclosporin is Tolypocladium inflatum.

In 1996, Kathie Hodge and colleagues determined the mold T. inflatum was the asexual state of what was then known as Cordyceps subsessilis.^[8] Cordyceps subsessilis was later moved to the genus Elaphocordyceps. However, under the ICN's 2011 "one fungus, one name" principle, fungi can not have different names for their anamorphic and teleomorphic stages if they are found to be the same species so Elaphocordyceps subsessilis was made a synonym of Tolypocladium inflatum.^[9][1]

External Links

• Cordyceps subsessilis at Tom Volk's Fungi
• Chemical structure of ciclosporin
• Tolypocladium at Hodge Lab, Cornell University
• An Electronic Monograph of Cordyceps and Related Fungi

References