Abstract
Cordyceps militaris is a potential harborer of biometabolites for herbal drugs. For a long time, C. militaris has gained considerable significance in several clinical and biotechnological applications. Much knowledge has been gathered with regard to the C. militaris's importance in the genetic resources, nutritional and environmental requirements, mating behavior and biochemical pharmacological properties. The complete genome of C. militaris has recently been sequenced. This fungus has been the subject of many reviews, but few have focused on its biotechnological production of bioactive constituents. This mini-review focuses on the recent advances in the biotechnological production of bioactive compositions of C. militaris and the latest advances on novel applications from this laboratory and many others.
Declaration of interest
The Project Partially Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, Project No. 21072041), Open Funding Project of the National Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering (NO. KF2010-12) and the Foundation (NO. 2012IM004) of Tianjin Key Laboratory of Industrial Microbiology (Tianjin University of Science and Technology), P. R. China, and Foundation of Hebei University of Science and technology for Distinguished Young Scientists.