Department of Pharmacognosy, School of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, PR China.
Microbiol Res. 2010 Aug 20;165(6):437-49. doi: 10.1016/j.micres.2009.11.009. Epub 2010 Jan 29.
Endophytes, found ubiquitous in all plant species in the world, contribute to their host plants by producing plenty of substances that provide protection and ultimately survival value to the plant. Many researches have proven that endophyte is a new and potential source of novel natural products for exploitation in modern medicine, agriculture and industry. So far, a great number of novel natural products possessing antimicrobial activities have been isolated from endophytes. It is believed that screening for antimicrobial compounds from endophytes is a promising way to overcome the increasing threat of drug resistant strains of human and plant pathogen. Antimicrobial metabolites isolated from endophytes belong to diverse structural classes, including: alkaloids, peptides, steroids, terpenoids, phenols, quinones, and flavonoids. In this review, many well-studied areas are presented and examples will be given to discuss the structure of compounds isolated from endophytes extracts with antimicrobial activities and show the wide variety of approaches taken within the field. These achievements would provide the opportunity to utilize endophytes as a new source for production of antibiotics.
内生菌广泛存在于世界上所有植物物种中，它们通过产生大量物质为宿主植物提供保护，最终赋予植物生存价值。许多研究已经证明，内生菌是开发现代医学、农业和工业中新型天然产物的新的潜在来源。到目前为止，已经从内生菌中分离出了大量具有抗菌活性的新型天然产物。人们相信，从内生菌中筛选抗菌化合物是克服人类和植物病原体耐药菌株日益威胁的一种有前途的方法。从内生菌中分离出的抗菌代谢产物属于多种结构类别，包括：生物碱、肽、甾体、萜类、酚类、醌类和类黄酮。在这篇综述中，介绍了许多研究充分的领域，并举例讨论了具有抗菌活性的内生菌提取物中分离出的化合物的结构，展示了该领域内所采用的广泛方法。这些成果将为利用内生菌作为抗生素生产的新来源提供机会。
