Heterologous Production of β-Caryophyllene and Evaluation of Its Activity against Plant Pathogenic Fungi

Abstract

Terpenoids constitute one of the largest and most diverse groups within the class of secondary metabolites, comprising over 80,000 compounds. They not only exhibit important functions in plant physiology but also have commercial potential in the biotechnological, pharmaceutical, and agricultural sectors due to their promising properties, including various bioactivities against pathogens, inflammations, and cancer. In this work, we therefore aimed to implement the plant sesquiterpenoid pathway leading to β-caryophyllene in the heterologous host Rhodobacter capsulatus and achieved a maximum production of 139 ± 31 mg L−1 culture. As this sesquiterpene offers various beneficial anti-phytopathogenic activities, we evaluated the bioactivity of β-caryophyllene and its oxygenated derivative β-caryophyllene oxide against different phytopathogenic fungi. Here, both compounds significantly inhibited the growth of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Fusarium oxysporum by up to 40%, while growth of Alternaria brassicicola was only slightly affected, and Phoma lingam and Rhizoctonia solani were unaffected. At the same time, the compounds showed a promising low inhibitory profile for a variety of plant growth-promoting bacteria at suitable compound concentrations. Our observations thus give a first indication that β-caryophyllene and β-caryophyllene oxide are promising natural agents, which might be applicable for the management of certain plant pathogenic fungi in agricultural crop production.

Fungistatic Effect of Ipomea Carnea Extract and Trichoderma Esperellum Against Various Fungal Biological Agents

“…Caryophyllene was found to be cytotoxic and antimicrobial [10]. The effect of caryophyllene in inhibiting the colony growth of several types of fungi tested in this experiment was also reported on several types of fungi including Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Fusarium oxysporum, Alternaria brassicicola, Phoma lingam, and Rhizoctonia solani [11]. As shown in Figures 1, 2, and 3, the fungistatic effect can be caused by caryophyllene and hexadecanoic acid through inhibition of fungal hyphae cell growth of entomopathogenic agents Me-Sdj-17 and Be-Sdj-13, and Be-Sj-15 at 72 and 96 HAI, Trichoderma (Tc-Ba-05 and Tc-Sdj-18), and As-Sdj-11 and Pn-Sdj-14.…”

Promising antifungal activity of two varieties of Capsicum chinense against Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Rhizopus stolonifer and Colletotrichum goleosporoides

“…The methanolic extract was poorly active since it inhibited only around 50% of mycelial growth of the three fungi (Santos et al, 2024). In sum, this study suggests that antifungal activity exhibited by HE-RB and HE-UB may be explained by their high concentrations of E-caryophyllene, since this sesquiterpene has well-known antifungal activity (Nogueira et al, 2020;Hilgers et al, 2021). Another possibility that must also be mentioned is the synergic effect of all constituents of the extracts which act to result in satisfactory antifungal activity (Rueangrit et al, 2019).…”

Preliminary Study on Phytochemical Constituents and Biological Activities of Essential Oil from Myriactis nepalensis Less.

“…Several reports have shown that both β-caryophyllene oxide and β-caryophyllene possess significant anti-cancer properties, inhibit the growth and proliferation of numerous cancer cell lines [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ], and are able to enhance the antiproliferative effect of classical anticancer agents, such as 5-fluorouracil, oxaliplatin, paclitaxel, and doxorubicin [ 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 ]. In addition, both of these compounds were found to exhibit anti-inflammatory [ 33 , 34 ], analgesic [ 26 , 35 ], antifungal [ 36 , 37 ], and antibacterial activities [ 28 , 38 , 39 ].…”