microorganisms Review Fungal Endophytes as Efficient Sources of Plant-Derived Bioactive Compounds and Their Prospective Applications in Natural Product Drug Discovery: Insights, Avenues, and Challenges Archana Singh 1,2, Dheeraj K. Singh 3,* , Ravindra N. Kharwar 2,* , James F. White 4,* and Surendra K. Gond 1,* 1 Department of Botany, MMV, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India;
[email protected] 2 Department of Botany, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India 3 Department of Botany, Harish Chandra Post Graduate College, Varanasi 221001, India 4 Department of Plant Biology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA * Correspondence:
[email protected] (D.K.S.);
[email protected] (R.N.K.);
[email protected] (J.F.W.);
[email protected] (S.K.G.) Abstract: Fungal endophytes are well-established sources of biologically active natural compounds with many producing pharmacologically valuable specific plant-derived products. This review details typical plant-derived medicinal compounds of several classes, including alkaloids, coumarins, flavonoids, glycosides, lignans, phenylpropanoids, quinones, saponins, terpenoids, and xanthones that are produced by endophytic fungi. This review covers the studies carried out since the first report of taxol biosynthesis by endophytic Taxomyces andreanae in 1993 up to mid-2020. The article also highlights the prospects of endophyte-dependent biosynthesis of such plant-derived pharma- cologically active compounds and the bottlenecks in the commercialization of this novel approach Citation: Singh, A.; Singh, D.K.; Kharwar, R.N.; White, J.F.; Gond, S.K. in the area of drug discovery. After recent updates in the field of ‘omics’ and ‘one strain many Fungal Endophytes as Efficient compounds’ (OSMAC) approach, fungal endophytes have emerged as strong unconventional source Sources of Plant-Derived Bioactive of such prized products.