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Updated: May 9, 2026

Establishing Fungal Entomopathogens as Endophytes: Towards Endophytic Biological Control
Published on: April 11, 2013
Fungal endophytes - secret producers of bioactive plant metabolites
1Institut für Pharmazeutische Biologie und Biotechnologie, Heinrich-Heine-Universitht DOsseldorf, Germany.
Abstract:
The potential of endophytic fungi as promising sources of bioactive natural products continues to attract broad attention. Endophytic fungi are defined as fungi that live asymptomatically within the tissues of higher plants. This overview will highlight the uniqueness of endophytic fungi as alternative sources of pharmaceutically valuable compounds originally isolated from higher plants, e.g. paclitaxel, camptothecin and podophyllotoxin. In addition, it will shed light on the fungal biosynthesis of plant associated metabolites as well as new approaches developed to improve the production of commercially important plant derived compounds with the involvement of endophytic fungi.
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