A A review of bioactive compounds produced by endophytic fungi associated with medicinal plants

Abstract

Interest in exploring endophytic fungi has increased in recent years, especially those associated with medicinal plants, reflecting the great potential of these microorganisms for the production of bioactive substances. Medicinal plants shelter a high diversity of endophytes that represent targets for use in biotechnological processes. These fungi synthetize several compounds that can be used in pharmaceutical, agricultural and other industries. Additionally, endophytes produce many bioactive metabolites involved in host-endophyte symbiosis, such as those that increase resistance to stressful conditions, alter physiological properties, and produce phytohormones, toxins, antimicrobial compounds and medicinal substances, immunosuppressants, antitumoral agents, and other biotechnological substances of interest, such as enzymes. In this review, information regarding plant interactions with endophytes is highlighted, contributing to a better understanding of this association, benefits and potential for biotechnological utilization.

Overview of Bioactive Fungal Secondary Metabolites: Cytotoxic and Antimicrobial Compounds

“…In the last years, due to studies on fungal biology, the importance of fungal SMs has been more widely recognized, and their pivotal participation in the survival, defense, and adaptation against biotic and abiotic conditions is well described. Over time, several different SMs were discovered, such as statins, cephalosporin (2) , and mycophenolic acid (3) , thus expanding and encouraging the studies for the discovery of more bioactive compounds by pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals companies [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 15 , 91 ].…”

“…In the last years, various fungal bioactive SMs have been described [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 125 ], such as paclitaxel. Paclitaxel was initially discovered from the medicinal plant Taxus brevifolia , and its cytotoxicity and apoptotic effect were studied in vitro on different cancer cell lines such as BT220 (breast), H116 (colon), Int407 (intestine), HL251 (lung), and HLK210 (leukemia) and MCF-7 (breast cancer).…”

“…Recent research has demonstrated that among fungi species, the endophytes are a great source of bioactive SMs, and approximately 20,000 compounds were already isolated from these microorganisms [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ]. The diversity of fungal endophytes is wide mainly due to the different environments to which they are exposed, also considering the seasonal variations, host plants’ genotype, and physiology [ 11 ].…”

Endophytic fungi: Benefits for plants and biotechnological potential

“…In the long run, this association remains imprinted in the genetic makeup of both partners, who start to develop complementary genetic systems (Moricca & Ragazzi, 2008). Soares et al (2017) reported that during co-evolution, endophytic fungi gradually adapted to specific microenvironments, including the uptake of some plant DNA segments into its genomes, as well as the insertion its DNA into the host genome.…”

Sulfur-Containing Compounds from Endophytic Fungi: Sources, Structures and Bioactivities

“…Fungi are a major group of microorganisms that produce a broad array of compounds with novel structures and unique bioactivities. One type of fungi colonizes the intercellular and/or intracellular regions of healthy plant tissues at a particular time and has no interference with and causes no pathogenic symptoms to the host [ 3 ]. These endophytic microorganisms are an important but less-explored source for the discovery of structurally novel natural products in drug research.…”