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BackgroundThe present study involves diversity and biological activities of the endophytic fungal community from Distylium chinense, a rare waterlogging tolerant plant endemic to the Three Gorges Reservoir. This study has been conducted hypothesizing that the microbial communities in the TGR area would contribute to the host plant tolerating a range of abiotic stress such as summer flooding, infertility, drought, salinity and soil erosion etc., and they may produce new metabolites, which may possess plentiful bioactive property, especially antioxidant activity. Therefore in the current study, the antioxidant, antimicrobial and anticancer activities of 154 endophytes recovered from D. chinense have been investigated. Furthermore, the active metabolites of the most broad-spectrum bioactive strain have also been studied.ResultsA total of 154 fungal endophytes were isolated from roots and stems. They were categorized into 30 morphotypes based on cultural characteristics and were affiliated with 27 different taxa. Among these, the most abundant fungal orders included Diaporthales (34.4%) and Botryosphaeriales (30.5%), which were predominantly represented by the species Phomopsis sp. (24.7%) and Neofusicoccum parvum (23.4%). Fermentation extracts were evaluated, screening for antioxidant, antimicrobial and anticancer activities. Among the 154 isolates tested, 99 (64.3%) displayed significant antioxidant activity, 153 (99.4%) exhibited inclusive antimicrobial activity against at least one tested microorganism and 27 (17.5%) showed exclusive anticancer activity against one or more cancer cell lines. Specifically, the crude extract of Irpex lacteus DR10–1 exhibited note-worthy bioactivities. Further chemical investigation on DR10–1 strain resulted in the isolation and identification of two known bioactive metabolites, indole-3-carboxylic acid (1) and indole-3-carboxaldehyde (2), indicating their potential roles in plant growth promotion and human medicinal value.ConclusionThese results indicated that diverse endophytic fungal population inhabits D. chinense. One of the fungal isolate DR10–1 (Irpex lacteus) exhibited significant antioxidant, antimicrobial and anticancer potential. Further, its active secondary metabolites 1 and 2 also showed antioxidant, antimicrobial and anticancer potential.

Biodecolorization by microorganisms is a potential treatment technique because they seem to be environmentally safe. In the present study, the decolorization and detoxification of cotton blue, crystal violet, malachite green and methyl violet by endophytic fungi were investigated. Preliminary screening result indicated that SWUSI4, identified as Bjerkandera adusta, demonstrated the best decolorization for the four TPM dyes within 14 days. Furthermore, optimization result demonstrated the decolorization rate could reach above 90% at 24 h by live cells of isolate SWUSI4 when 4 g biomass was added into 100-mL dyes solution with the concentration 50 mg/L and shaking (150 rpm) conditions. Moreover, decolorization mechanism analysis shows that the decolorization was caused by the isolate SWUSI4 that mainly includes both absorption of biomass and/or degradation of enzymes. Biosorption of dyes was attributed to binding to hydroxyl, amino, phosphoryl alkane, and ester–lipids groups based on Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analyses. The biodegradation potential of SWUSI4 was further suggested by the change of peaks in the ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) spectra and detection of manganese peroxidase and lignin peroxidase activities. Finally, the phytotoxicity test confirmed that the toxicity of TPM dyes after treatment with SWUSI4 was significantly lower than that before treatment. These results indicate that an endophytic SWUSI4 could be used as a potential TPM dyes adsorption and degradation agent, thus facilitating the study of the plant–endophyte symbiosis in the bioremediation processes.

Beneficial interactions between endophytes and plants are critical for plant growth and metabolite accumulation. Nevertheless, the secondary metabolites controlling the feedback between the host plant and the endophytic microbial community remain elusive in medicinal plants. In this report, we demonstrate that plant-derived triterpenoids predominantly promote the growth of endophytic bacteria and fungi, which in turn promote host plant growth and secondary metabolite productions. From culturable bacterial and fungal microbial strains isolated from the medicinal plant Schisandra sphenanthera, through triterpenoid-mediated screens, we constructed six synthetic communities (SynComs). By using a binary interaction method in plates, we revealed that triterpenoid-promoted bacterial and fungal strains (TPB and TPF) played more positive roles in the microbial community. The functional screening of representative strains suggested that TPB and TPF provide more beneficial abilities to the host. Moreover, pot experiments in a sterilized system further demonstrated that TPB and TPF play important roles in host growth and metabolite accumulation. In summary, these experiments revealed a role of triterpenoids in endophytic microbiome assembly and indicated a strategy for constructing SynComs on the basis of the screening of secondary metabolites, in which bacteria and fungi join forces to promote plant health. These findings may open new avenues towards the breeding of high yielding and high metabolite-accumulating medicinal plants by exploiting their interaction with beneficial endophytes.

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