First evidence of Clavicipitaceous fungus attacking a vertebrate

Metapochonia bulbillosa (Clavicipitaceae) was isolated as a causative agent of a new frog mycosis of Pelophylax porosus brevipodus, one of the endangered frogs in Japan. Analysis of spontaneous outbreaks and infection experiments confirmed that the fungus can lethally affect Pelophylax porosus brevipodus, as well as Dryophytes japonicus. This is the first evidence that a species of Clavicipitaceae, originally known as a plant pathogen, also affects vertebrates.