Elicitation of natural products biosynthesis by endophytic microorganisms’ interaction

Abstract

Natural products are still an important source for discovering novel bioactive molecules that potentially could be useful for drug design. Endophytes are microorganisms living inside of vegetal tissues considered as prolific natural products. They are in continuous microbial competition and host interaction, which make them very attractive for searching new secondary metabolites. It is necessary to highlight that biologic function for most of the molecules in the real environment is unknown. Endophytic fungi have been widely studied due to their potential for producing several classes of secondary metabolites. Recently, research involving actinobacteria is also increasing because of their high potential for production of bioactive molecules. Sub-culturing of isolated endophytic microorganisms can decrease their ability for producing secondary metabolites, probably due to biosynthetic pathway genes silencing. In order to reactivate these metabolic pathways, co-culturing, in which microorganisms interactions are simulated under laboratory conditions, has been well-succeed for inducing or increasing bioactive compounds production as a result of microbial competition. The goal of this research project is to verify the influence of co-culturing endophytic microorganisms (fungi and actinobacteria) and endophytic microorganisms with pathogenic bacteria in the production of natural products. For this purpose, several culture strategies, chromatographic methods for analysis and separation (including HPLC), spectroscopic (NMR) and spectrometric (ESI-MS, MALDI-TOF and nanoDESI) methods will be used. Analysis of data will generate useful information for the comprehension of microbial interactions and, probably, lead to the discovery of novel bioactive compounds. (AU)