Abstract
Plants are all inhabited by endophytic fungi in the interior of their tissues. The neem tree Azadirachta is an Indian lilac used for various therapeutic purposes in different forms of preparations. This plant hosts different types of endophytic fungi. In some cases, different tissues of a given plant are inhabited by different endophytic fungi which are discussed in this paper. Recently, there have been new reports on endophytic fungi and their bioactive compounds from Azadirachta indica. The biological function of bioactive compounds was discussed in view of their future industrial prospects. There are a number of different research investigations that examine the endophytes isolated and screened for their potential bioactive secondary metabolites from neem, but there is no comprehensive review on neem endophytes and their secondary metabolites to bring all trends from different researchers together. Therefore, in this review, we have discussed the endophytic fungi from the different tissues of neem, in view of the latest understandings of antimicrobial, antioxidant, and pathogenicity target compounds. Importantly, tracing the previous findings would pave the way to forecast the missing link for future work by researchers.
Highlights
The term “endophyte” refers to all microorganisms that colonize internal plant tissues for all or part of their lifetime [1]
Azadirachta indica is widely used for the investigation of endophytes and their secondary metabolites, but it remains crucial to further extend the study as it is one of the major traditional medicinal plants used by about 80% of developing nations
Endophytic fungi, producer of a wide array of secondary bioactive metabolites with their peculiar potential compounds, namely, melanin, antimicrobials, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, insecticides, nematicides, etc., are the ideal targets. These bioactive compounds have a range of potential to combat etiologic agents of plants and animal’s disease, prevent cell damage due to reactive oxygen species, crop pests, animal pests, and to target pathogenicity traits of pathogenic microbes for necessary remediation
Summary
The term “endophyte” refers to all microorganisms that colonize internal plant tissues for all or part of their lifetime [1]. Endophytes are an under-investigated group of microorganisms that represent a plentiful and renewable source of bioactive and chemically new compounds with potential for exploitation in a wide variety of medical, agricultural, and industrial realms [4]. Azadirachta indica is widely used for the investigation of endophytes and their secondary metabolites, but it remains crucial to further extend the study as it is one of the major traditional medicinal plants used by about 80% of developing nations This is because the discovery of new bioactive compounds as well as new endophytic fungi from Azadirachta indica has been reported recently. Leaving aside most of these factors, by modifying the culture condition different investigators are reporting new endophytic isolates [15] and new bioactive compounds in recent studies This signifies the continuous nature of exploiting the endophytes even from largely exploited hosts as well. We believe that this review provides relevant research trends on the subject
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