ISSN 2756-3685
International Journal of Enology and Viticulture Vol. 6 (1), pp. 001-012, January, 2019. © International Scholars Journals
Full Length Research Paper
Metabolite profiling of endophytic fungal isolates of five ethno-pharmacologically important plants of Meghalaya, India
R. K. Bhagobaty1,2 and S. R. Joshi1*
1Microbiology Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, North- Eastern Hill University, Umshing, Shillong-793 022, Meghalaya, India.
2Microbiology Division, Quality Evaluation Laboratory, Spices Board, Palarivattom, Cochin-682025, Kerala, India.
Accepted 10 June, 2018
Abstract
Crude metabolite extracts derived from the culture broths of endophytic fungi of five ethno-pharmacologically important plant species used by the ethnic tribes of the hill state of Meghalaya in North-East India were screened for the presence of toxins and secondary metabolites using agar plug paper chromatography, thin layer chromatography (TLC) and liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy (LC-MS). The endophytic fungal isolates were found to produce a wide range of toxins, growth hormones and antibiotics upon searching in a fungal mycotoxin database. Relatedness among the fungal isolates was determined based upon their extra-cellular metabolite production pattern. The endophytic fungal isolates in the present study showed a wide range of metabolomic diversity and can be explored as potential microbial cell factories for production of a diverse range of biomolecules. Taxonomic relatedness of the endophytes based upon the snapshots of their secretomes, presented a contrasting picture in relation to their morphological identity. Rapid metabolome analysis of endophytic fungi using analytical techniques like LC-MS coupled with mass related search in fungal specific metabolite databases is bound to increase our insights about fungal chemo-taxonomy as a whole and bio-prospection of useful fungal metabolites in particular.
Key words: Endophytic fungi, ethnic tribes, medicinal plants, agar plug paper chromatography, thin layer chromatography (TLC), liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy (LC-MS), chemo-taxonomy, metabolome.