Current Research in Environmental & Applied Mycology Doi 10.5943/cream/2/1/3 Biology of Endophytic Fungi Selim KA1,*, El-Beih AA1, AbdEl-Rahman TM2 and El-Diwany AI 1 1Chemistry of Natural and Microbial Product Department, National Research Center, 12622 Dokki, Cairo, Egypt. 2Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt. Selim KA, El-Beih AA, AbdEl-Rahman TM, El-Diwany AI. 2012 – Biology of Endophytic Fungi. Current Research in Environmental & Applied Mycology 2(1), 31–82, Doi 10.5943/cream/2/1/3 Endophytic fungi that are residing asymptomatically in internal tissues of all higher plants are of growing interest as promising sources of biologically active agents. This review focuses on the biology of endophytic fungi, their discovery, isolation, identification, and diversity and their biological activities in environmental and agricultural sustainability. It also considersand their medicinal applications especially in the production of anticancer, antimicrobial, antioxidant, and antiviral compounds. Endophytic fungi are one of the most creative groups of secondary metabolite producers that play important biological roles for human life. They are potential sources of novel natural agents for exploitation in the pharmaceutical industry, agriculture, and in environmental applications. Key words – Biological Roles – Ecology – Endophytic Fungi – Identification – Isolation – Secondary Metabolites Article Information Received 30 January 2012 Accepted 4 May 2012 Published online 20 June 2012 *Corresponding author: Khaled A. Selim – e-mail –
[email protected] Introduction actinomycetes, and fungi). The discovery of natural products involves isolation, structural Natural Products as Important Sources in elucidation and establishing the bio-synthetic the Drug Discovery Process pathway of the secondary metabolites.