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HPTLC-Based Chemical Profiling: An Approach to Monitor Plant Metabolic Expansion Caused by Fungal Endophytes

Summary

This research explores how beneficial fungi living inside plants can help protect them from harmful microorganisms and expand their chemical diversity. Using an advanced chemical analysis technique (HPTLC), researchers showed how these friendly fungi can either directly fight off harmful organisms or help transform plant compounds into protective substances. Impacts on everyday life: • Better understanding of natural plant defense systems could lead to more sustainable crop protection • Could help develop new natural alternatives to synthetic pesticides • May lead to discovery of new beneficial compounds for medicine and agriculture • Demonstrates potential for improving plant health through managing beneficial microorganisms • Could contribute to more environmentally-friendly farming practices

Background

Natural products are considered the most abundant source of bioactive chemicals due to their great chemical diversity. The chemical diversity of organisms can originate from the organism itself, associated organisms, and/or interactions between them. Fungal endophytes, which colonize healthy plants without showing symptoms, have become important sources of new bioactive molecules that promote plant growth and help them persist in natural niches.

Objective

To demonstrate how fungal endophytes isolated from latex-bearing species can expand their host plant chemical diversity, using High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC) for metabolic profiling. The study aimed to explore and characterize the role of plant fungal endophytes in chemical diversity and defense of their host-plants.

Results

The strains were well clustered into three major groups by hierarchical clustering analysis of HPTLC data, with chemical profiles strongly correlating to colony size. The strains demonstrated high capacity to fight against fungal pathogens, with increased antifungal activity after being fed with host-plant metabolites. HPTLC-based metabolomics proved effective for monitoring interactions among fungal endophytes, host plants, and potential phytopathogens.

Conclusion

Endophytes play a significant role in plant defense mechanisms either directly or through biotransformation/induction of metabolites. HPTLC-based metabolomics proved to be a robust approach for monitoring interactions between fungal endophytes, host plants, and potential phytopathogens. The study demonstrated that controlling the pool of endophytes could be a strategy for transforming and expanding plant metabolite diversity to obtain potential bioactive molecules.
  • Published in:Metabolites,
  • Study Type:Laboratory Research,
  • Source: 10.3390/metabo11030174
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