The biological promises of endophytic muscodor species

Abstract

With increasing human population and limited land for agriculture, it has become a herculean task to provide food security to over 7 billion people around the world. The majority of the food produced is lost in postharvest losses. The present approaches to manage the current situation appear to be ineffective and unsustainable. Further, the development of resistance in microbes against the current arsenal of drugs and the destructive effects of methyl bromide and sulfur dioxide on the ozone layer has worsened the situation. This calls for an urgent need to explore alternate avenues for management of postharvest losses. Besides various chemical approaches, exploration of natural resources for finding out new anti-infective and biocontrol agents appears to be a plausible and sustainable solution for management of postharvest losses. Muscodor is a genus of sterile endophytic fungi which has the remarkable property to produce a mixture of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which are lethal against a number of plant and human pathogenic bacteria and fungi, nematodes, and moths. Further, the VOCs of Muscodor spp. have also shown promising application as biocontrol agent and in management of human waste. Recently, the extrolites of Muscodor species have also shown promising antimicrobial, anti-obesity, antihyperuricemic, and antioxidant activity. Hence, the current chapter embodies the potential uses of volatiles and other extrolites produced by Muscodor species and their possible application in agriculture and pharmaceutical industries.