Diversity and function of endophytic microbial community of plants with economical potential

Abstract

Plants do not live alone as single entities but closely associate with an incredible diversity of bacteria, archaea, fungi, and other organisms. The concept of endophyte has been addressed by several studies and may easily be related to habitat and not so easily to function, and it is still under construction. Generically, endophytes are microorganisms that spend most of their lifetime inside the plant without causing an apparent disease symptom to the host. Here, we revised the acknowledged endophytes from different plants (grass to trees) and the methodological approaches used to assess them, from cultivation methods to next-generation sequencing. We address some of the endophytes' major characteristics that make them beneficial to plants. Two case studies, sugarcane and pine trees, are presented to illustrate and discuss the benefits of plant endophytes. The endophytes diversity and their roles is not a close subject. The sugarcane endophytic microbial diversity is described and the benefits provided by this association were discussed, in the perspective of its application in the future as important sugarcane agrobiotechnological input. The diversity of the endophytic microbiome of pine trees is outlined and was examined the endophytic community's possible roles in the pine tree disease, pine wilt disease. The chapter closes with a comparative analysis among endophyte-sequenced genomes. An appropriate combination of culture-dependent and culture-independent methods, such as the analysis of genomes, proteomes, tran-scriptomes, metabolome and lipidomes, will allow a better understanding and characterization of endophytes focused on biotechnological applications.