Biotechnology Letters

, Volume 37, Issue 7, pp 1325–1334 | Cite as

Plants and endophytes: equal partners in secondary metabolite production?

Review
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

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.

Keywords

Antimicrobial activity Bioactive metabolites Biocontrol Endophyte In vitro conversion Secondary metabolites 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

Work in the author’s laboratory on secondary metabolites is funded by the European Union, The German Ministry for Education and Science and the State of Saxony.

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© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Institute of BotanyTechnische Universität DresdenDresdenGermany

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