Metabolic module exchange in plant-endophyte coevolution: mechanisms and implications

Area of Science:

• Microbiology
• Plant Science
• Biochemistry

Background:

• Endophytes form symbiotic relationships with plants, offering benefits like growth promotion and stress resistance.
• Existing research highlights endophyte benefits, but lacks systematic synthesis on distribution, functional differentiation, and metabolite production.
• This gap hinders understanding of plant-endophyte coadaptation and its applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize studies on endophyte diversity, functional specialization, and metabolite biosynthesis.
• To elucidate patterns and mechanisms of functional complementarity and metabolic congruence between plants and endophytes.
• To evaluate the roles of horizontal gene transfer and convergent evolution in bioactive metabolite production.

Main Methods:

• Bibliometric analysis
• Systematic literature review
• Integration of existing evidence

Main Results:

• Endophyte communities are structured, host- and tissue-specific, with phylogenetic relatedness observed in strains from similar tissues.
• Bacteria primarily produce indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), while fungi mainly produce gibberellins (GAs), indicating functional division in phytohormone production.
• Roots are the primary and most diverse sites for endophyte colonization.

Conclusions:

• Plant-endophyte coadaptation is driven by structured community assembly and functional specialization, not random association.
• Horizontal gene transfer and convergent evolution are key mechanisms for metabolic complementation between plants and endophytes.
• Understanding these interactions is vital for agricultural and medicinal applications.