Tolypocladium inflatum NRRL8044 Genome sequencing and assembly. Tolypocladium inflatum NRRL8044

Tolypocladium inflatum, the producer of the immunosuppressant drug cyclosporin, is a haploid ascomycetous fungus in the order Hypocreales. In nature, it has a cosmopolitan distribution in soil in the haploid asexual stage and infects scarab beetles and other insect hosts to undergo sexual reproduction. We have initiated the genome sequence of T. inflatum to characterize the secondary metabolite potential of this fungus and the cyclosporin biosynthetic pathway as well as to understand changes in gene content that may reflect adaptation to an insect pathogenic lifestyle.