Biodiversity, Ecology, and Secondary Metabolites Production of Endophytic Fungi Associated with Amaryllidaceae Crops

• Main Authors: Gianluca Caruso, Nadezhda Golubkina, Alessio Tallarita, Magdi T. Abdelhamid, Agnieszka Sekara
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-11-01
• Series: Agriculture
• Subjects: onions; amaryllis; endosphere; endobiome; metabolome; symbiosis
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/10/11/533

Amaryllidaceae family comprises many crops of high market potential for the food and pharmaceutical industries. Nowadays, the utilization of plants as a source of bioactive compounds requires the plant/endophytic microbiome interactions, which affect all aspects of crop’s quantity and quality. This review highlights the taxonomy, ecology, and bioactive chemicals synthesized by endophytic fungi isolated from plants of the Amaryllidaceae family with a focus on the detection of pharmaceutically valuable plant and fungi constituents. The fungal microbiome of Amaryllidaceae is species- and tissue-dependent, although dominating endophytes are ubiquitous and isolated worldwide from taxonomically different hosts. Root sections showed higher colonization as compared to bulbs and leaves through the adaptation of endophytic fungi to particular morphological and physiological conditions of the plant tissues. Fungal endophytes associated with Amaryllidaceae plants are a natural source of ecofriendly bioagents of unique activities, with special regard to those associated with Amarylloidae subfamily. The latter may be exploited as stimuli of alkaloids production in host tissues or can be used as a source of these compounds through in vitro synthesis. Endophytes also showed antagonistic potential against fungal, bacterial, and viral plant diseases and may find an application as alternatives to synthetic pesticides. Although Amaryllidaceae crops are cultivated worldwide and have great economic importance, the knowledge on their endophytic fungal communities and their biochemical potential has been neglected so far.