Molecular identification and food source inference of constructive plants, native to the Ophiocordyceps sinensis habitat

Abstract

Ophiocordyceps sinensis is a precious and effectual Traditional Chinese Medicine, native to Tibetan Plateau. Its development originated from parasitization of Hirsutella sinensis to Hepialus larvae, which was deemed to be of great importance including feeding food habit. Hereby in the present, study on food resource plants and their molecular identification technique were performed by some methods such as vegetation investigation, morphological taxonomy, sequence alignment, phylogenetic inference, primer design and correlation analysis and so on. In consequence, molecular identification system of constructive plants native to the O. sinensis habitat was established, and then feeding food habit of Hepialus pui larvae and its correlation with genesis mechanism of O. sinensis were preliminarily analyzed and discussed. It is very significant for phylogenetic systematicbotany research of plateau plants on a relative large scale, and it is the first time to study feeding food habit of Hepialus larvae and its related infected process on the molecular level.

Keywords: Phylogenetic inference, molecular identification, constructive plant, Ophiocordyceps sinensis, Hepialus pui