A beauvericin hot spot in the genus Isaria

Beauvericin is a naturally occurring cyclohexadepsipeptide originally described from Beauveria bassiana but also reported from several Fusarium species as well as members of the genus Isaria. Twenty-six isolates of Isaria species and its Cordyceps teleomorph, and ten taxonomically close strains including Beauveria, Nomuraea and Paecilomyces species were sequenced and tested for beauvericin production. Trees using ITS rDNA and β-tubulin sequence data were constructed and used to infer the phylogenetic distribution of beauvericin production. A group comprising Isaria tenuipes and its known teleomorph Cordyceps takaomontana, Isaria cicadae and its Cordyceps teleomorph, Isaria japonica and Isaria fumosorosea, showed positive beauvericin production which correlated well with combined ITS rDNA and β-tubulin phylogenies. The results suggested that beauvericin can serve as a chemotaxonomic marker for these limited species of the I. tenuipes complex.