Abstract
Plant endophytes are microbial sources of bioactive secondary metabolites, which mimic the natural compounds chemistry of their respective host plants in a similar manner. This study explored the isolation and identification of fungal endophytes, and investigated the antibacterial and antimycobacterial activity of their crude extracts. Fungal endophytes were isolated from Solanum mauritianum, identified using morphological traits and internal transcribed spacer ribosomal-deoxyribonucleic acid (ITS-rDNA) sequence analysis. Eight fungal endophytes were identified as Aureobasidium pullulans, Paracamarosporium leucadendri, Cladosporium sp., Collectotrichum boninense, Fusarium sp., Hyalodendriella sp., and Talaromyces sp., while Penicillium chrysogenum was isolated from the leaves and unripe fruits. Good activity was observed for the crude extracts of Paracamarosporium leucadendri inhibiting Mycobacterium bovis, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa at 6 µg/mL. Crude extracts of Fusarium sp., showed activity at 9 μg/mL against M. bovis, M. smegmatis and K. pneumonia. In general, the crude extracts showed great activity against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria and novel results for two mycobacteria species M. bovis and M. smegmatis. The results provide evidence of diverse fungal endophytes isolated from Solanum mauritianum, and evidence that fungal endophytes are a good source of bioactive compounds with pharmaceutical potential, particularly against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Highlights
Plants act as hosts to several endophytic microorganisms, known to produce bioactive compounds of novel potential use in agriculture, modern medicine and the pharmaceutical industry
Endophytes include bacteria and fungi, fungal endophytes are the most researched because they are a potential source of bioactive natural products and have been shown to produce a variety of secondary metabolites with interestingly complex molecular scaffolds [3,4,5]
Several metabolites of interest have been isolated from fungal endophytes, including novel compounds with antibiotics, antialgal, anticancer, antifungal, antimalarial and immunosuppressive activities [6], for example, the anticancer drug paclitaxel was isolated from Pestalotiopsis microspora, an endophytic fungus that colonizes the Taxus wallichiana tree [7], and camptothecin, a topoisomerase inhibitor, has been isolated from Fusarium solani endophytic fungi in Camptotheca acuminata [8]
Summary
Plants act as hosts to several endophytic microorganisms, known to produce bioactive compounds of novel potential use in agriculture, modern medicine and the pharmaceutical industry. Endophytes include bacteria and fungi, fungal endophytes are the most researched because they are a potential source of bioactive natural products and have been shown to produce a variety of secondary metabolites with interestingly complex molecular scaffolds [3,4,5]. Several metabolites of interest have been isolated from fungal endophytes, including novel compounds with antibiotics, antialgal, anticancer, antifungal, antimalarial and immunosuppressive activities [6], for example, the anticancer drug paclitaxel (taxol) was isolated from Pestalotiopsis microspora, an endophytic fungus that colonizes the Taxus wallichiana tree [7], and camptothecin, a topoisomerase inhibitor, has been isolated from Fusarium solani endophytic fungi in Camptotheca acuminata [8]. Public Health 2020, 17, 439; doi:10.3390/ijerph17020439 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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