Fungus-larva relation in the formation of Cordyceps sinensis as revealed by stable carbon isotope analysis

For more than one thousand years, Cordyceps sinensis has been revered as a unique halidom in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau for its mysterious life history and predominant medicinal values. This mysterious fungus-larva symbiote also attracted the over-exploitation, while several problems on the initial colonization of Ophiocordyceps sinensis in the host larva have constrained artificial cultivation. In this work, stable carbon isotope analysis was employed to analyse the subsamples of C. sinensis from 5 representative habitats. The results demonstrated that these samples possessed similar δ13C profiles, i.e., a steady ascending trend from the top to the bottom of stroma, occurrence of the δ13C maximum at the head, a slight decrease from the head to the end of thorax, a sharply descent trend from the end of thorax to the forepart of abdomen, and maintenance of lower δ13C values in the rest parts of abdomen. Based on the data, we consider that the site near the head of the host larva may be the initial target attacked by O. sinensis, and the fungus growth is closely related to the digestive tract of its host larva. The growth stages of O. sinensis are accordingly speculated as the symptom-free, symptom-appearing, and stroma-germinating stages.