Isolation and identification of an endophytic strain of Fusarium oxysporum producing podophyllotoxin from Juniperus recurva

Abstract

Podophyllotoxin, a well-known naturally occurring aryltetralin lignan occurs in few plant species that is used as a precursor for the chemical synthesis of the anticancer drugs like etoposide, teniposide and etopophose phosphate. The availiability of this lignan is becoming increasingly limited because of the scarce occurance of its natural sources and also because synthetic approaches for its production are still commercially unacceptable. This paper reports first time the production of podophyllotoxin by an endophytic fungus Fusarium oxysporum isolated from the medicinal plant Juniperus recurva. Further confirmation and quantification of podophyllotoxin was performed by HPLC, LC-MS, and LC-MS/MS.

Plant Bioactive Metabolites and Drugs Produced by Endophytic Fungi of Spermatophyta

“…vulgaris) [204], Penicillium spp. from S. hexandrum, Diphylleia sinensis and Dysosma veitchii [203], Phialocephala fortinii from Podophyllum peltatum [205], Trametes hirsuta, Fusarium solani and M. fragilis from S. hexandrum [137,206,207], and F. oxysporum from Juniperus recurva [208]. Moreover, deoxypodophyllotoxin has been reported from a strain of A. fumigatus endophytic in J. communis [209].…”

Endophytic fungi occurring in Ipomoea carnea tissues and their antimicrobial potentials

“…This can be exemplified from the fact that species of Fusarium is regarded as destructive plant pathogens with important economic impacts and also cause severe human infections (Guarro and Gene 1995). But, at present, they have been isolated as endophytes from many plant species with some of them displaying biological activity (Chakravarthi et al 2008;Kour et al 2008;Deng et al 2009). Among the dominant endophytes, the colonization frequency of Curvularia was highest indicating their systemic colonization in the host tissues.…”

Endophytic Fungi as Alternative and Reliable Sources for Potent Anticancer Agents

“…These potent anticancer compounds were extracted from the endophytic Fusariumsolani inhabiting Camptotheca acuminata [18]. Podophyllotoxin, a nonalkaloid lignin and its analogues are clinically relevant mainly due to their antiviral and anticancer activities; further, they are the precursors of many other useful anticancer drugs including etoposide, Teniposide and etopophos phosphate [49]. Podophyllotoxin and other related aryl tetralin lignans have also been reported to be produced by another novel endophytic fungus, Trametes hirsute with anticancer potential [17].…”

“…The diferent strains of endophytic fungi producing Podophyllotoxin are represented in Table 2. Various novel microbial sources of podophyllotoxin include Aspergillus fumigatus isolated from Juniperus communis [50], Phialocephala fortinii isolated from Podophyllum peltatum [30] and Fusarium oxysporum isolated from Juniperus recurva [49]. Ergolavin, a novel anticancer agent, was isolated from the leaf endophytes of an Indian medicinal plant Mimusops elengi, belonging to family Sapotaceae.…”