Phenotypic Marking of Cordyceps militaris Fruiting-Bodies and Their Cordycepin Production

Cordyceps militaris has recently been used as a functional food in China and is commonly used as a Traditional Chinese Medicine. The formation of C. militaris fruiting bodies is unstable and is a limiting factor for industrial production. Fruiting body formation and quantities of adenine, adenosine and cordycepin differed significantly between the phenotypes. Orange chrome colonies produced fruiting bodies more readily, as compared to those of lighter colour. Cordycepin production generally decreased in orange chrome to apricot orange and white colonies. There was, however, no relationship between cordycepin production and colony colour in the slow growing strains. The yields of fruiting body from primary strains were higher than the isolates from colony sector mutations. On the contrary, cordycepin production in most isolates from the colony sector mutations were higher than the primary strains. Therefore isolates from colony sector mutation in C. militaris could be used for screening high-yield strains in cordycepin production. Colony colour is one of the markers for detecting fruiting body and cordycepin production in C. militaris. The strategies used for screening high-yield strains could have a wide application in fungal biotechnology.