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International Journal of Plant Biology 2018; volume 9:7810 Secrets of plants: Endophytes endophytic fungus grows asymptomatically in aerial plant tissues and is vertically trans- Correspondence: Asiya Nazir, Department of mitted from the plant to its offspring via Applied Science and Mathematics, College of Asiya Nazir, Habeeb Abdul Rahman seeds and tillers. Endophytes are thought to Arts and Sciences, Abu Dhabi University, Abu Department of Applied Science and interact mutualistically with their host Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Mathematics, College of Arts and plants mainly by increasing host resistance Tel.: +97125015447. Sciences, Abu Dhabi University, Abu to herbivores1 and have been termed E-mail: [email protected] Dhabi, United Arab Emirates acquired plant defenses.5 In return, plants Key words: Endophytic fungi; bioactive com- provide spatial structure and protection pounds; secondary metabolite. from desiccation, nutrients, and photosyn- thate and, in the case of vertical-transmis- Contributions: the authors contributed equally. Abstract sion, dissemination to the next generation of Endophytic fungi are an important com- hosts. Endophytic fungi represent an impor- Conflict of interest: the authors declare no ponent that colonizes in healthy tissues of tant and quantifiable component of fungal potential conflict of interest. living plants and can be readily isolated biodiversity in plants that impinge on plant from any microbial or plant growth medi- community diversity and structure. Received for publication: 5 August 2018. um. They act as reservoirs of novel bioac- They produce a wide range of com- Revision received: 5 September 2018. tive secondary metabolites, such as alka- pounds useful for plants for their growth, Accepted for publication: 6 September 2018. loids, phenolic acids, quinones, steroids, protection to environmental conditions, and This work is licensed under a Creative sustainability, in favor of a good dwelling saponins, tannins, and terpenoids that serve Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 as a potential candidate for antimicrobial, place within the hosts. Due to its ability of International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). anti-insect, anticancer and many more prop- producing bioactive secondary metabolites erties. Their huge diversity and particular similar or same compounds as their host ©Copyright A. Nazir and H.A. Rahman, 2018 habituation, they can provide a good area plant, promoting growth, good yield, induc- Licensee PAGEPress srl, Italy for research in the field of making new ing host plants to tolerate both biotic and International Journal of Plant Biology 2018; 9:7810 medicines and novel drug-like molecules. abiotic stresses and disease resistance, onlydoi:10.4081/pb.2018.7810 Because of the impact of endophytes on endophytes is currently attracting a lot of host plant by enhancing their growth or research interest and therefore, can be used transmission, in plant biodiversity and fit- increasing their fitness, also making them as a potential source of novel natural prod- ness benefits conferred to hosts while the C ucts for food, industrial, medicinal anduse agri- tolerant to abiotic and biotic stresses and group has just one class. Class 2 endophytes cultural industries. holding the secondary metabolites, endo- have been the most extensively researched phytes are gaining attention as a subject for and has been shown to enhance fitness ben- research. This review aims to comprehend efits of their plant host as a result of habitat- the contribution and uses of endophytes and Classification of endophytes specific stresses such as pH, temperature, relationships between endophytic fungi and There are mainly two classes in which and salinity. Class 3 endophytes are restrict- their host medicinal plants. endophytic fungi are classified as Class I ed to growth in belowground plant tissues Clavicipitaceae and Class II and form in localized areas of plant tissue. Nonclavicipitaceous. The Class 1 endo- Class 4 endophytes are also restricted to Introduction phytes are the clavicipitaceous endophytes plant tissues below ground but can colonize Endophytes are microorganisms that associated with warm- and cool-season much more of the plant tissue.10 NC-endo- reside within study plant tissues intercellu- grasses. They are host specific, mainly in phytes have been recovered from every larly and/or intracellularly but usually the grass family poaceae and rarely in major lineage of land plants, and from all remain asymptomatic and does not show cyperaceae, and are often vertically trans- terrestrial ecosystems, including both agro- any noticeable damage to the host. mitted through seeds. Transmission of Class ecosystems and biomes ranging from the Endophytic fungi inhabit plant tissues with- 1 endophytes is primarily vertical, with tropics to the tundra.11 out destroying or producing substancesNon-commercial that maternal plants passing fungi on to off- The scale of their diversity, their eco- 6 cause an infection in the host cell. They spring via seed infections. Class 1 endo- logical roles, the insights they provide into exhibit complex interactions with their phytes frequently increase plant biomass, the evolution of various ecological modes hosts, which involves mutualism and antag- confer drought tolerance, and produce in fungi, their potential applications, and the onism.1,2 Plants strictly limit the growth of chemicals that are toxic to animals and 5 ability of many fungi to switch between endophytes, and these endophytes use many decrease herbivory. However, the benefits endophytic and freeliving lifestyles12,13 mechanisms to gradually adapt to their liv- conferred by these fungi appear to depend are becoming more apparent, engendering ing environments.3 Unlike mycorrhizal on the host species, host genotype and envi- 7,8 growing enthusiasm from mycologists, fungi that colonize plant roots and grow ronmental conditions. ecologists, physiologists and applied scien- into the rhizosphere, endophytes reside Compared with Class 1 endophytes, tists. entirely within plant tissues and may grow Class 2 endophytes are highly diverse and within roots, stems and/or leaves, emerging comprised of species from pezizomycotina to sporulate at plant or hosttissue senes- (ascomycota) to agaricomycotina and puc- cence.1,4 Symbioses have been responsible ciniomycotina (basidiomycota).9 They col- for the origin of major ecological and evo- onize roots, stems, leaves, or the whole Isolation and identification lutionary transitions in the history of life. plant. They can be vertically or horizontally Endophytic fungi are any fungi that Plants are hosts to complex communities of transmitted. However, NC-endophytes rep- grow all or part of their life cycles symp- endophytes that colonize the interior of both resent three distinct functional classes class tomlessly in the intercellular spaces of liv- below- and above-ground tissues. The 2, 3 and 4, based on host colonization and ing and apparently healthy host plant tis- [International Journal of Plant Biology 2018; 9:7810] [page 43] Review sues, while the inhabited host tissues remain insects.19 Reports of molecular studies on wide variety of structurally unique bioac- intact and functional. The diversity and endophytic bacterial diversity have revealed tive natural products, such as alkaloids, numbers of fungal endophytes vary consid- a large richness of species. Endophytes pro- benzopyranones, chinones, flavonoids, phe- erably and their detection depends on biotic, mote plant growth and yield, suppress nolic acids, quinones, steroids, terpenoids, abiotic and experimental factors. Detection pathogens, may help to remove contami- tetralones, xanthones, and others.23 and recovery of endophytic fungi have nants, solubilize phosphate, or contribute relied heavily on dissection of plant organs assimilable nitrogen to plants.20 The endo- into small fragments followed by their sur- phyte-host relationship is believed to be face sterilization and subsequent plating of complex and probably varies from host to Antioxidants and phenolic con- fragments onto a nutrient-rich agar medi- host and microorganism to the microorgan- tent of endophytes um.4,14 ism.21 Many experiments have been con- Traditionally, endophytic fungi inside ducted to compare how endophyte-infected Antioxidants are thought to be highly plant tissues can be recognized by two basic plants and non-infected plants behave in effective in the management of ROS-medi- techniques, i.e. direct observation and culti- relation to environmental stress, and attack ated tissue impairments. Many antioxidant vation-dependent methods. In the direct by insect and animal predators.22 Therefore, compounds possess anti-inflammatory, observation method, endophytic fungal search for interesting biological activities anti-atherosclerotic, antitumor, antimuta- structures within living plant tissues are within the natural biodiversity has been the genic, anticarcinogenic, antibacterial, and antiviral activities to a greater or lesser directly examined under a light and electron basis for the development of various appli- extent. Afra et al., in 2015, revealed that microscope, which can show all endophytic cations in biotechnology, agriculture, pro- endophytic fungus Aspergillus sp. from mycobiota within the plant tissue.15 In con- duction of pharmaceuticals compounds and Trigonella foenum-graecum seeds demon- trast, cultivation-dependent techniques have other fields. strated the highest both total phenolic con- been routinely employed