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Bioprospecting for Fungal-Endophyte-Derived Natural Products for Drug Discovery

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Advances in Endophytic Fungal Research

Part of the book series: Fungal Biology ((FUNGBIO))

Abstract

Fungal endophytes are epitomes of various secondary metabolites and natural products, which have a place in the medical and industrial arenas. They comprise components of plant microecosystems that dwell asymptomatically and symbiotically within plant tissue systems. Certain contemporaneous endophytes and their specific hosts have established a unique correlation that can expressively control plant metabolites and affect the physicochemical properties of medicinal-plant-based crude drugs. Currently, shifting lifestyles have led to a rise in maladies like pulmonary disease, asthma, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. Though several new medicines have been introduced to the market, the development of resistance to these drugs has become increasingly evident, especially in patients suffering from chronic disease. Synthetic drug therapy has proven to be uncertain, so there is an overall need to develop new protective agents from microorganisms that are highly effective with minimal side effects. Natural products thus have always been a choice for the isolation of novel bioactive molecules for diverse therapeutic applications. It has been determined that nearly 20, 00,000 natural products are of microbial origin. This chapter will thus provide an insight into the novel aspects of some natural products of fungal endophytic origin that may have significant therapeutic potential in disease control and eventually facilitate product discovery with a focus on understanding the interface between endophytic fungi and therapeutic plants. Such an understanding can lead to a more widespread use of superior plant-based drugs in the near future.

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Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to DBT (Govt. of India) Sponsored Bioinformatics Infrastructure Facility (BIF) of Assam University and Delcon’s e-Journal Access Facility.

Conflict of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this book chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life Science and Bioinformatics, Assam University, Silchar, Assam, India

    Priyanka Saha, Anupam Das Talukdar & Manabendra Dutta Choudhury

  2. Department of Botany and Biotechnology, Karimganj College, Karimganj, Assam, India

    Deepa Nath

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  1. Priyanka Saha
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  2. Anupam Das Talukdar
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  3. Manabendra Dutta Choudhury
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  4. Deepa Nath
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Correspondence to Anupam Das Talukdar .

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  1. Molecular Microbiology and Systematics Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, Mizoram University, Aizawl, Mizoram, India

    Bhim Pratap Singh

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Saha, P., Talukdar, A.D., Choudhury, M.D., Nath, D. (2019). Bioprospecting for Fungal-Endophyte-Derived Natural Products for Drug Discovery. In: Singh, B. (eds) Advances in Endophytic Fungal Research. Fungal Biology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03589-1_3

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