Endophytic Fungi and Bioactive Metabolite Production
Summary
Endophytic fungi inhabit living plant tissues without causing overt disease symptoms and form intricate symbioses that can profoundly influence host physiology. These organisms are recognised as prolific sources of structurally diverse secondary metabolites, including alkaloids, terpenoids, peptides and polyketides, many of which exhibit antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant, anticancer and immunomodulatory activities. The biosynthesis of these compounds is often regulated by complex microbial–plant interactions as well as environmental cues, leading to dynamic metabolic profiles that hold promise for drug discovery, agrochemical development and biotechnological applications. Advances in cultivation techniques, ‘omics’ technologies and elicitor strategies have opened new avenues for uncovering cryptic biosynthetic pathways and enhancing yield of bioactive compounds. The global significance of endophytic fungal metabolites extends from agriculture—where they can bolster plant resilience—to medicine, as exemplified by taxol and other clinically relevant agents. A concerted effort to integrate high-throughput screening, genome mining and fermentation optimisation is driving the exploration of this microbial reservoir for novel therapeutics and sustainable bioresources.
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Endophytic Fungi and Bioactive Metabolite Production publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in endophytic fungi and bioactive metabolite production across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Endophytic fungi: Microorganisms that live asymptomatically within plant tissues and often produce secondary metabolites of pharmacological interest.
Secondary metabolites: Organic compounds not directly involved in growth or reproduction, often biosynthesised for defence and signalling.
UHPLC-Q-TOF-MS: Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry, used for metabolite identification.
ADMET: Absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity profiles used to evaluate drug-likeness of compounds.
OSMAC approach: Strategy that alters fermentation parameters to elicit diverse secondary metabolite production from a single microbial strain.
References
- Comparative Analysis of the Antioxidant, Antidiabetic, Antibacterial, Cytoprotective Potential and Metabolite Profile of Two Endophytic Penicillium spp.. Antioxidants (2023).
- EMNPD: a comprehensive endophytic microorganism natural products database for prompt the discovery of new bioactive substances. Journal of Cheminformatics (2023).
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