Nearly 20 years ago, the first report appeared on the discovery of a novel genus—Muscodor. This organism was isolated as an endophyte from a cinnamon tree that had been introduced to Honduras from Sri Lanka in the early part of the last century. Characteristically, the original Muscodor albus, and all of its species isolated since that time are non-spore producers and each one exudes a characteristic spectrum of volatile bioactive compounds. The majority have a whitish mycelium, which is sometimes coiling, intertwined and decorated with variously shaped structures. Presently, there are at least 22 type species known/documented and each has been described as an endophyte from various plant families with widely varying habitats. An enormous variety of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are produced by Muscodor spp. and some of these include esters, acids, aldehydes, ketones, aromatics, alkanes, alcohols, nitrosamides and terpenoids. The VOCs are both inhibitory and lethal to a wide variety of fungi and bacteria including some major pathogens of plants and humans. Interestingly, in almost all cases studied, no one compound by itself can mimic the bioactivity of the complete gas mixture, suggesting that the volatiles are acting in a synergistic manner and this has been tested with individual as well as the VOCs in various mixtures and concentrations. This review will discuss some of the recent findings in all aspects of this unique fungal genus whilst at the same time pointing out some of the major questions that remain about its biology, ecology and its applications in agriculture, medicine and other sectors. Most importantly, the authors provide arguments supporting the claim that Muscodor is taxonomically distinct from Induratia, a recently proposed change to its nomenclature.

近 20 年前，第一份报告出现了关于发现一个新属——Muscodor 的报道。这种有机体是从上个世纪初从斯里兰卡引入洪都拉斯的肉桂树中作为内生菌分离出来的。典型地，原始的Muscodor albus，并且自那时以来分离的所有物种都是非孢子生产者，并且每个物种都散发出挥发性生物活性化合物的特征谱。大多数菌丝体呈白色，有时盘绕、缠绕并装饰有各种形状的结构。目前，至少有 22 种类型的物种已知/记录在案，每一种都被描述为来自各种植物科的内生菌，具有广泛不同的栖息地。Muscodor生产种类繁多的挥发性有机化合物 (VOC)spp. 其中一些包括酯、酸、醛、酮、芳烃、烷烃、醇、亚硝酰胺和萜类化合物。VOC 对多种真菌和细菌（包括植物和人类的一些主要病原体）具有抑制性和致死性。有趣的是，在所研究的几乎所有案例中，没有一种化合物本身可以模拟完整气体混合物的生物活性，这表明挥发物以协同方式起作用，并且已经对各种混合物和浓度中的 VOC 以及单个化合物进行了测试. 这篇综述将讨论这一独特真菌属各个方面的一些最新发现，同时指出关于其生物学、生态学及其在农业、医学和其他领域的应用的一些主要问题。最重要的是，Muscodor在分类学上与Induratia不同，这是最近提出的对其命名法的更改。