Cordyceps militaris produces cordycepin, which is known to be a bioactive compound. Currently, cordycepin hyperproduction of C. militaris was carried out in a liquid surface culture because of its low productivity in a submerged culture, however the reason was not known. In this study, 4.92 g/L of cordycepin was produced at the 15th day of C. militaris NBRC 103752 liquid surface culture, but only 1 mg/L was produced in the submerged culture. RNA-Seq was used to clarify the gene expression profiles of the cordycepin biosynthetic pathways of the submerged culture and the liquid surface culture. From this analysis, 1036 genes were shown to be upregulated and 557 genes were downregulated in the liquid surface culture compared with the submerged culture. Specifically, adenylosuccinate synthetase and phosphoribosylaminoimidazole-succinocarboxamide (SAICAR) synthase in purine nucleotide metabolism were significantly upregulated in the liquid surface culture. Thick mycelia formation in the liquid surface culture was found to induce the expression of hypoxia-related genes (GABA shunt, glutamate synthetase precursor, and succinate-semialdehyde dehydrogenase). Cytochrome P450 oxidoreductases containing heme were also found to be significantly enriched, suggesting that a hypoxic condition might be created in the liquid surface culture. These results suggest that hypoxic conditions are more suitable for cordycepin production in the liquid surface culture compared with the submerged culture. Our analysis paves the way for unraveling the cordycepin biosynthesis pathway and for improving cordycepin production in C. militaris.

An entomopathogenic fungus, Cordyceps sp. has been known to produce cordycepin which is a purine nucleoside antimetabolite and antibiotic with potential anticancer, antioxidant and anti‐inflammatory activities. Interestingly, Cordyceps militaris produces significantly higher amount in a liquid surface culture than in a submerged culture. The liquid surface culture consists of mycelia growing into the air (aerial mycelia) and mycelia growing toward the bottom into the medium (submerged mycelia). In this study, to clarify roles of aerial and submerged mycelia of C. militaris in the cordycepin production the difference in metabolism between these mycelia was investigated. From transcriptomic analyses of the aerial and submerged mycelia at the culture of 5, 12 and 19 days, the metabolism of the submerged mycelia switched from the oxidative phosphorylation to the fermentation pathway. This activated the pentose phosphate pathway to provide building block materials for the nucleotide biosynthetic pathway. Under hypoxic conditions, the 5‐aminolevulinic acid synthase (CCM_01504), delta‐aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (CCM_00935), coproporphyrinogen III oxidase (CCM_07483) and cytochrome c oxidase 15 (CCM_05057) genes of heme biosynthesis were significantly upregulated. In addition, the liquid surface culture revealed that metabolite coproporhyrinogen III and glycine, the product and precursor of heme, were increased at 12th day and decreased at 19th day, respectively. These results indicate that the submerged mycelia induce the activation of iron acquisition, the ergosterol biosynthetic pathway, and the iron cluster genes of cordycepin biosynthesis in a hypoxic condition. Even though, the expression of the cluster genes of cordycepin biosynthesis was not significantly different in both types of mycelia.

Cordyceps militaris produces cordycepin, a secondary metabolite that exhibits numerous bioactive properties. However, cordycepin pharmacology in vivo is not yet understood. In this study, the roles of cordycepin in C. militaris during its infection were investigated. After the injection of conidia, C. militaris NBRC100741 killed silkworm larvae more rapidly than NBRC103752. At 96 and 120 h, Cmcns genes (Cmcns1–4), which are part of the cordycepin biosynthesis gene cluster, were expressed in fat bodies and cuticles. Thus, cordycepin may be produced in the infection of silkworm larvae. Further, cordycepin enhanced pathogenicity toward silkworm larvae of Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria bassiana, that are also entomopathogenic fungi and do not produce cordycepin. In addition, by RNA-seq analysis, the increased expression of the gene encoding a lipoprotein 30K-8 (Bmlp20, KWMTBOMO11934) and decreased expression of genes encoding cuticular proteins (KWMTBOMO13140, KWMTBOMO13167) and a serine protease inhibitor (serpin29, KWMTBOMO08927) were observed when cordycepin was injected into silkworm larvae. This result suggests that cordycepin may aid the in vivo growth of C. militaris in silkworm larvae by the influence of the expression of some genes in silkworm larvae.

A Cordyceps militaris NBRC 10352-3 strain that was isolated from C. militaris NBRC10352 produced 68 mg of cordycepin from 100 ml of medium, which was the highest level of cordycepin among 60 isolates from three C. militaris (NBRC 9787, 100741 and 103752) strains. Interestingly, a liquid surface culture of C. militaris NBRC 103752-3 produced 2-fold cordycepin to that in a submerged culture. Cordycepin production was significantly affected by specific surface area (SSA) in the liquid surface culture, and 120.9 mg of cordycepin was produced on SSA of 1.57 cm-1 (from 50 ml). The addition of glycine and adenine as an additive to its culture medium was optimized by an experimental design. When 6.75 g/l of adenine was added to the culture, 315.7 mg of cordycepin was produced from 50 ml medium, improving the cordycepin production by 4.7-fold. In this study, the production and productivity of cordycepin were significantly improved in C. militaris wild type by a single cell colony isolation and additives without adopting any mutational technologies. This C. militaris NBRC 10352-3 strain can be used as a new cordycepin-hyperproducing one, instead of a cordycepinhyperproducing mutant.

Cordyceps militaris produces cordycepin (3'-deoxyadenosine), which has various activities, including anti-oxidant, anti-tumoral, anti-viral, and anti-inflammatory. Ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) seems to be a candidate to produce cordycepin in C. militaris because RNR catalyzes the reduction of nucleotides to 2'-deoxynucleotides, whose structures are similar to that of cordycepin. However, the role of RNR has not been confirmed yet. In this study, complementary DNAs (cDNAs) of C. militaris RNR (CmRNR) large and small subunits (CmR1 and CmR2) were cloned from C. militaris NBRC9787 to investigate the function of CmRNR for its cordycepin production. C. militaris NBRC9787 began to produce cordycepin when grown in a liquid surface culture in medium composed of glucose and yeast extract for 15 days. CmR1 cDNA and CmR2 cDNA were obtained from its genomic DNA and from total RNA extracted from its mycelia after cultivation for 21 days, respectively. Recombinant CmR1 and CmR2 were expressed individually in Escherichia coli and purified. Purified recombinant CmR1 and CmR2 showed RNR activity toward adenosine diphosphate (ADP) only when two subunits were mixed but only show the reduction of ADP to 2'-deoxyADP. These results indicate that the pathway from ADP to 3'deoxyADP via CmRNR does not exist in C. militaris and cordycepin production in C. militaris may be mediated by other enzymes.

Cordycepin is an anticancer metabolite produces by a zombie fungus species of Cordyceps militaris. They are capable to infect and hijack insect’s nervous neuron system. Hypoxic environment commonly must be faced by the pathogenic fungus during infection either this zombie fungus. They activate oxygen sensing mode, heme, siderophore, and sterol biosynthesis to overcome it. Underlined our previous study that liquid surfaced culture of C. militaris NBRC103752 produced a higher amount of cordycepin than submerged culture, suggesting that hypoxic conditions might induce it. However, when and how the mechanism of cordycepin production started in liquid surfaced culture is not understood, yet. In our present study, the combination of transcriptomics and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry were carried out during the production phases of cordycepin (5d, 12d, and 19d of incubation periods) and the mechanism of cordycepin production was figured out. The expression of genes in the fermentation pathway and the oxidative phosphorylation pathway were significantly upregulated and down regulated, respectively. Expression of four genes in the heme biosynthesis, including 5-aminolevulinic acid synthase (CCM_01504), delta-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (CCM_00935), coproporphyrinogen III oxidase (CCM_07483) and cytochrome c oxidase15 (CCM_05057) were upregulated at the beginning of the exponential phase (12d). Further, the activation of Zn(2)-C6 transcription factor that regulates the iron acquisition and ergosterol biosynthesis significantly upregulated and a metabolite reporter adenosine was detected only at 12d. The results in the present study show the correlation between hypoxia and the accumulation of heme before cordycepin biosynthesis.