Khare Ekta, Mishra Jitendra, Arora Naveen Kumar
Department of Microbiology, Institute of Biosciences and Biotechnology, Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University, Kanpur, India.
Department of Microbiology, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow, India.
Front Microbiol. 2018 Nov 15;9:2732. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.02732. eCollection 2018.
Microbial endophytes are present in all known plant species. The ability to enter and thrive in the plant tissues makes endophytes unique, showing multidimensional interactions within the host plant. Several vital activities of the host plant are known to be influenced by the presence of endophytes. They can promote plant growth, elicit defense response against pathogen attack, and can act as remediators of abiotic stresses. To date, most of the research has been done assuming that the interaction of endophytes with the host plant is similar to the plant growth-promoting (PGP) microbes present in the rhizosphere. However, a new appreciation of the difference of the rhizosphere environment from that of internal plant tissues is gaining attention. It would be interesting to explore the impact of endosymbionts on the host's gene expression, metabolism, and other physiological aspects essential in conferring resistance against biotic and abiotic stresses. A more intriguing and inexplicable issue with many endophytes that has to be critically evaluated is their ability to produce host metabolites, which can be harnessed on a large scale for potential use in diverse areas. In this review, we discuss the concept of endophytism, looking into the latest insights related to the multifarious interactions beneficial for the host plant and exploring the importance of these associations in agriculture and the environment and in other vital aspects such as human health.
微生物内生菌存在于所有已知的植物物种中。内生菌能够进入植物组织并在其中茁壮成长，这使其具有独特性，在宿主植物内部表现出多维度的相互作用。已知宿主植物的一些重要活动会受到内生菌存在的影响。它们可以促进植物生长，引发对病原体攻击的防御反应，还可以作为非生物胁迫的修复剂。迄今为止，大多数研究都是在假设内生菌与宿主植物的相互作用类似于根际中存在的促进植物生长（PGP）微生物的前提下进行的。然而，人们越来越关注根际环境与植物内部组织环境差异的新认识。探索内共生体对宿主基因表达、代谢以及赋予抗生物和非生物胁迫能力所必需的其他生理方面的影响将是很有趣的。一个更有趣且难以解释的问题是，许多内生菌具有产生宿主代谢物的能力，这一能力可被大规模利用，用于不同领域的潜在用途，必须对此进行严格评估。在这篇综述中，我们讨论内生现象的概念，研究与宿主植物有益的多种相互作用相关的最新见解，并探讨这些关联在农业、环境以及人类健康等其他重要方面的重要性。
