Plants and endophytes: equal partners in secondary metabolite production?

Well known plant production systems should be re-evaluated due to findings that the interesting metabolite might actually be produced by microbes intimately associated with the plant, so-called endophytes. Endophytes can be bacteria or fungi and they are characterized usually by the feature that the...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biotechnology letters 2015-07, Vol.37 (7), p.1325-1334
Main Author: Ludwig-Müller, Jutta
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied Microbiology
Bacteria
Bacteria - metabolism
Biochemistry
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biosynthesis
Biotechnology
Culture
Endophytes
Flowers & plants
Fungi
Fungi - metabolism
Life Sciences
Metabolism
Metabolites
Microbiology
Origins
Plant production
Plants (organisms)
Plants - metabolism
Plants - microbiology
Review
Secondary metabolites
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Well known plant production systems should be re-evaluated due to findings that the interesting metabolite might actually be produced by microbes intimately associated with the plant, so-called endophytes. Endophytes can be bacteria or fungi and they are characterized usually by the feature that they do not cause any harm to the host. Indeed, in some cases, such as mycorrhizal fungi or other growth promoting endophytes, they can be beneficial for the plant. Here some examples are reviewed where the host plant and/or endophyte metabolism can be induced by the other partner. Also, partial or complete biosynthesis pathways for plant secondary metabolites can be attributed to such endophytes. In other cases the host plant is able to metabolize substances from fungal origin. The question of the natural role of such metabolic changes for the endophyte will be briefly touched. Finally, the consequences for the use of plant cultures for secondary metabolite production is discussed.
ISSN:0141-5492
1573-6776
DOI:10.1007/s10529-015-1814-4