Data from: Phylogeography and evolution of a fungal-insect association on the Tibetan Plateau

Parasitoidism refers to inter-species interactions where parasitoids sterilize and/or kill their hosts typically before hosts reach reproductive age. Though a major form of biological interaction, parasitoidism is among the least understood, especially between fungi and insects, two of the largest groups of organisms on our planet. Here we investigate the spatial patterns of genetic variation of Chinese cordyceps, including both the parasitoidal fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis and its host insects, and report their evolutionary relationships. We sampled broadly from alpine regions on the Tibetan Plateau and obtained sequences at seven fungal and three insect DNA fragments from each of the 125 Chinese cordyceps samples. Seven and five divergent lineages/cryptic species were identified within the fungus and host insects respectively. Our analyses suggested that O. sinensis and host insects originated at similar geographic regions in southern Tibet/Yunnan, followed by range expansion to their current distributions on the Tibetan Plateau. Cophylogenetic analyses revealed a complex evolutionary relationship between O. sinensis and its host insects. Besides cospeciation, other coevolutionary events were also identified, including duplication, host switch, failure to diverge, and lineage sorting events. Interestingly, one multi-locus fungal genotype was broadly distributed, consistent with recent gene flow. In contrast, the high-frequency insect genotypes showed limited geographic distributions. The dominant genotypes from both the fungus and the insect hosts may represent ideal materials from which to develop artificial cultivation of this important Chinese traditional medicine. Our results demonstrate that both historical and contemporary events have played important roles in the phylogeography and evolution of the O. sinensis-ghost moth parasitoidism on the Tibetan Plateau.