Endophytic fungal research in Egypt: Present status

Abstract

Plant endophytes are a potential source for the production of bioactive compounds that can fight against devastating diseases in both plants and humans. Among these endophytic microorganisms, endophytic fungi are one of the dominant group of microorganisms with a potential role in plant growth promotion and the discovery of noble bioactive natural products. Endophytic fungi possess several bioactivities like anticancer, antimicrobial, anti-rheumatoidal, insecticidal, plant growth stimulants, crop protection, phytoremediation, etc. In 2010, Abdel-Azeem mentioned endophytic fungi as a group needing more exploration in Egypt among the other overlooked fungal groups such as algicolous fungi, invertebrate associated fungi, mycorrhizas, lichens, wood deteriorating, and coprophilous fungi. Presently, main target of many studies in Egypt on endophytic fungal research is coupled with the ability of these microorganisms to produce and accumulate novel bioactive metabolites as these are potent source of novel natural products useful for anticancer, anti-rheumatoid, antimicrobial, antioxidants, industrial and pharmaceutical enzymes…etc. This mini-review illustrates the role of most brilliant Egyptian researchers to generate potentially valuable products by using native endophytic fungi and the present status of endophytic fungal research in Egypt.

Scaling-up production of cost-effective and eco-friendly bio-fertilizer and its application on Barley green fodder via IoT hydroponic system

“…Indeed, the key parameters such as pH, agitation, airflow, dissolved oxygen, temperature, and feeding pumps were affected by large-scale production of microbial mass production [16,18]. Many studies have been reported to evaluate the cultivation parameters for Trichoderma sp., by using a submerged fermentation system to increase its bioactive metabolites as well as conidia [14][15][16][17]. To detect perfect conditions for transposing the cultivation of endophytic T. harzianum to the industrial scale, the batch and exponential fedbatch fermentation modes were applied in our work.…”

“…When the cultivation process was completed without adding any extra supplemented nutrition, this mode is called batch fermentation mode. The fed-batch fermentation mode was implemented to increase microbial biomass densities by feeding extra substrates and other supplements after a certain period of incubation time [ 15 ]. One of the most significant cereal grains that are grown in diverse weather conditions worldwide is barley ( Hordeum vulgare L) that belonged to the Poaceae family [ 19 ].…”

“…Additionally, the tested microbial cells must survive multiple processing stages without destroying their quality and quantity [14]. Therefore, there are low-cost materials such as agro-wastes that have been utilized as carbon and nitrogen sources for culturing microbial cells to reduce production line costs [14][15][16][17]. For the commercial scale-up approach, two distinct fermentation systems called solid-state and submerged fermentation were applied accordingly to the sensitivity of microbial cells.…”