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Culturable Endophytes of Medicinal Plants and the Genetic Basis for Their Bioactivity

  • Plant Microbe Interactions
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Abstract

The bioactive compounds of medicinal plants are products of the plant itself or of endophytes living inside the plant. Endophytes isolated from eight different anticancer plants collected in Yunnan, China, were characterized by diverse 16S and 18S rRNA gene phylogenies. A functional gene-based molecular screening strategy was used to target nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) and type I polyketide synthase (PKS) genes in endophytes. Bioinformatic analysis of these biosynthetic pathways facilitated inference of the potential bioactivity of endophyte natural products, suggesting that the isolated endophytes are capable of producing a plethora of secondary metabolites. All of the endophyte culture broth extracts demonstrated antiproliferative effects in at least one test assay, either cytotoxic, antibacterial or antifungal. From the perspective of natural product discovery, this study confirms the potential for endophytes from medicinal plants to produce anticancer, antibacterial and antifungal compounds. In addition, PKS and NRPS gene screening is a valuable method for screening isolates of biosynthetic potential.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Troco K. Mihali (University of New South Wales), Yanli Zhang and Yajuan Chen (Kunming Medical University) for advice and helpful discussions. We would also like to acknowledge Bin Qiu (Yunnan Institute of Materia Medica) for assistance with collection of some of the plant samples. B.A.N. is a recipient of an Australian Research Council Federation fellowship and grant (FF0883440). K.I.M., M.Y.D.S and B.D.R. were supported by the Australia–China Special Fund for S&T Cooperation (CH070067). In addition, K.I.M. thanks the Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong programme funded by the Australian Government. C.Q. was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30811120009) and the International Cooperation Foundation of Yunnan Province of China (No. 30811120009).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Kristin I Miller, Daniel Man-Yuen Sze & Basil D Roufogalis

  2. School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia

    Kristin I Miller & Brett A Neilan

  3. Yunnan Key Laboratory of Pharmacology for Natural Products, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, 650031, People’s Republic of China

    Chen Qing

  4. Department of Health Technology and Informatics, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Daniel Man-Yuen Sze

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  1. Kristin I Miller
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Correspondence to Brett A Neilan.

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Miller, K.I., Qing, C., Sze, D.MY. et al. Culturable Endophytes of Medicinal Plants and the Genetic Basis for Their Bioactivity. Microb Ecol 64, 431–449 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-012-0044-8

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