Investigation regarding the ecological role of endophytes on antibiotic production in Alternanthera brasiliana

Abstract

"Investigation regarding the ecological role of endophytes on antibiotic production in Alternanthera brasiliana." Alternanthera brasiliana is a plant widely used by Brazilian people as a folk medicine for the treatment of numerous diseases, especially for its antibiotic properties. Using dereplication strategies, we found that antibiotic compounds are mainly present in the stem of A. brasiliana and they are modified fatty acids closely related to oxylipins (molecules usually produced during plant infection). Moreover, during the endophytes isolation it was observed that plant stem is also inhabited by a large number of bacteria. These results suggest that an ecological interaction between plant and its endophytes is very likely involved in the production of antibiotic compounds in A. brasiliana. Thus, we are submitting a sandwich PhD project for Marília Almeida Trapp, to be developed in Max Planck Institute of Chemical Ecology, Jena-Germany. The aim of this project is to develop and perform experiments regarding re-inoculation of endophytic bacteria in Alternanthera brasiliana tissues, in order to figure out how plant-microbe interactions affect the biosynthesis of antibiotic compounds in plant tissues. (AU)