Skip to main content
Botanical Studies
Download PDF

Fungal endophytes of Plumbago zeylanica L. enhances plumbagin content

Botanical Studies volume 60, Article number: 21 (2019) Cite this article

Abstract

Background

Plumbagin is one of the pharmaceutically important biomolecule with anticancer potential. Among the plants reported to produce plumbagin, P. zeylanica topped the list. The plumbagin production is very slow with low yield and maximum 0.5% (of dry weight) was reported in P. zeylanica. To meet the increasing demand of the plumbagin at global level, the P. zeylanica are exploited at commercial level, which may pose serious threat on the germplasm of the plant populations. So, it is needed to enhance the contents of plumbagin in P. zeylanica using biotechnological approaches. Among the various methods used to enhance the contents of plumbagin in P. zeylanica, utilization of fungal endophytes to enhance the plumbagin contents is a widely accepted approach. As fungal endophytes have the potential to synthesize various secondary metabolites and also reported to influence the synthesis of the secondary metabolites in plants. In the present study, an attempt was made to assess the effect of fungal endophytes of the Plumbago zeylanica L. on enhancement of plumbagin contents at in vivo level.

Results

Total 3 fungal endophytes were recorded from the roots of P. zeylanica collected from Khadki, Pune. The fungal endophytes were identified at morphological and molecular level. After 1 year of the treatment with fungal endophytes, significant enhancement of plumbagin was recorded in the roots of the P. zeylanica. Plumbagin contents in each were quantified against the standard plumbagin by employing LCMS-MS technique. Among the three fungal endophytes, the maximum enhancement of plumbagin content (122.67%) was reported with the treatment of Alternaria   sp. (Isolate-3) in the roots of the P. zeylanica compared to control.

Conclusion

Among the three fungal endophytes, the maximum enhancement of plumbagin content (122.67%) was reported with Alternaria sp. (Isolate 3) in the roots of the pot-grown plants of P. zeylanica at in vivo level.

Background

Plumbago zeylanica L. (leadwort) is a herbaceous plant belongs to the family Plumbaginaceae and is reported as one of the potential multipurpose medicinal plant (Pant et al. 2012). It is native of South Asia and is distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the globe (Jain et al. 2014). The phytochemical analysis of the plant (P. zeylanica) extract revealed the presence of various secondary metabolites viz. 1,2 (3)-Tetrahydro-3,3′-biplumbagin, 1,4-naphthoquinone, 6-hydroxyplumbagin, alkaloid benzene, alkenes, anthocyanin pigments, benzenoid, beta-stigmasterol, campesterol, flavonoid, leucodelphinidin, lignoceric acid, naphthoquinone, naphthalenone, naphthylamine, phenolic acids, plumbagin, quinoid, sitosterol, and tannins in different parts of the plant (Jalalpure 2011; Ming et al. 2011; Zhang et al. 2007; Gunaherath et al. 1983). Plumbagin is reported as the active principle of the P. zeylanica (Tilak et al. 2004). Since ancient times, various medicinal potentials were attributed to P. zeylanica, in both Indian and Chinese systems of medicine (Patwardhan et al. 2004). Based on its phytochemical potentials, it is reported to have anti anorexic, anti-cancer, anti-dyspepsia, anti-haemorrhoidal, anti-saturative, appetizer, analgesic and antimicrobial activities (Vishnukanta and Rana 2010; Vijver and Looter 1971; Ahmad et al. 1998; Liu et al. 2017). The roots of the Plumbago sp. are the main source of Plumbagin (Komaraiah et al. 2002). Plumbagin (C11H8O3) is one of the most important secondary metabolites belong to 1,4-naphthoquinone class of the quinone family, with a molecular weight 188.18 g/mol (Liu et al. 2017). Plumbagin is also reported to be produced by various plant genera belongs to other botanical families viz. Droseraceae and Ebenaceae etc (Padhye et al. 2012) but the members of the family Plumbaginaceae reported to produce plumbagin at high concentration with maximum (1.0% of the dry weight) by P. zeylanica (Dohare et al. 2015). As per reports (Paiva et al. 2003; Sinha et al. 2013), plumbagin is having anticancer, antibacterial and antifungal activities (Aziz et al. 2008). Due to its prime importance, it has tremendous demand in various pharmaceutical companies (Mukherjee 2017). To meet the increasing demand of the plumbagin at global level, the P. zeylanica plants were exploited at commercial level, which may pose serious threat on the germplasm of the plant populations. Furthermore, the rate of plumbagin synthesis under natural condition is very slow due to variability in the species and changing environmental conditions (Roy and Bharadvaja 2018). So it is needed to develop the efficient, cost effective and accepted approach to enhance the contents of plumbagin. In past various people attempted to enhance the contents of the Plumbagin in Plumbago sp. using various methods e.g., generation of transgenic lines (Martin et al. 2011), elicitation and in situ adsorption (Komaraiah et al. 2002; Jaisi and Panichayupakaranant 2016), production of mutants using induced mutation (Jaisi et al. 2013), developing root suspension culture (Roy and Bharadvaja 2019), triggering the pathways using bacterial treatment to the roots at in vivo level (Andhale and Ade 2013), and treatment of plant roots with fungal endophytes (Pandey et al. 2016). Among all the methods, the technique which employed fungal endophytes, seems cost-effective, accepted and efficient method to enhance secondary metabolite contents in the plants. So, in the present study an attempt was made to study the effect of fungal endophytes of P. zeylanica on its own plumbagin contents at in vivo level.

Methods

Collection, identification and authentication of the P. zeylanica L

The P. zeylanica plants were collected randomly from three to four locations along road sides of Park Road (18° 56′ 06.5″ N; 73° 83′ 91.6″ E), QMTI quarters (near the Ayyappa temple), Khadki, Pune, Maharashtra-411045. The voucher specimen of the plant was also submitted at Botanical Survey of India (BSI), Western Circle, Pune for identification and authentication.

Isolation of fungal endophytes

Fungal endophytes from the roots of P. zeylanica were isolated using the method of Hallmann et al (2006). The roots were separated from the plant and washed with tap water followed by surface sterilization using 0.1% HgCl2 for 3 min and 70% C2H5OH for 1 min. The surface sterilized roots were rinsed with autoclaved water and dried using sterile tissue paper under aseptic condition. The roots were chopped with sterile scalpel into small pieces (1 × 1 mm2). Sterilized root pieces were inoculated on plain agar plates, incubated with at 27 ± 2 °C for 2 days under dark condition. Single mycelia developed from each root was inoculated on each Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) plate (Potato Dextrose Agar, Cat. No. M096, Himedia) supplemented with streptomycin 100 μg/ml was used). PDA inoculated plates were incubated (Incubator, Steel Mate Novatech, Pune)  at 27 ± 2 °C for 15 days under dark condition. After the growth the endophytic fungi, the pure cultures were separated and sub-cultured on Rose Bengal Agar (Rose Bengal Agar media, Cat. No. M842, Himedia) and plates were incubated with at 27 ± 2 °C for 15 days under dark condition.

Identification of fungal endophytes

The pure cultures of the fungal endophytes were identified at morphological and molecular level.

Morphological Identification of the fungal endophytes

At morphological level, all the fungal endophytes were identified based on morphological keys at National Fungal Culture Collection of India (FCCI), Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), Gopal Ganesh Agarkar Road, Pune, Maharashtra 411004, India.

Molecular identification of the fungal endophytes

Fungal endophytes with potential to enhance the plumbagin content were only identified at molecular level.

Extraction of genomic DNA

Total genomic DNA was extracted from the top 2 elite fungal endophytes (7 to 14 days old culture) grown on potato dextrose agar (PDA) media (Himedia, Mumabai) homogenized in a FastPrep 24 tissue homogenizer (MP Biomedicals, Germany) using the salt extraction method (Aljanabi and Martinez 1997). The quality and quantity the extracted DNA was checked using 0.8% Agarose (Sigma-Aldrich, Missouri, United States) gel electrophoresis (1× TAE buffer) stained with ethidium bromide (10 µg/ml) against the standard λ DNA. The gel documentation was done using gel documentation unit (Alpha Imager, Germany). The concentration of the DNA was also determined using Nanodrop (NanoDrop, 800, Thermo Scientific, USA) and finally the concentration of DNAs were diluted to 10 ng/µl for PCR amplification.

Amplification of ITS gene

The universal Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) gene was amplified using ITS4 and ITS5 primers (White et al. 1990). Total 25 µl volume of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) mixture comprises of 16 μl PCR grade water (Sigma), 2.5 μl PCR buffer (10×); 1 μl dNTPs (250 mM each); 0.5 μl of each primer (50 pmol/μl); 1 μl (1 U/μl) of Taq polymerase (all from Bangalore Genie, Bangalore, India) along with 2.5 μl (10 ng/μl) of template DNA and was overlaid with one drop of light mineral oil. The amplification of the ITS gene was performed in a thermocycler (Eppendorf MasterCycler, Hamburg, Germany) and was programmed with initial denaturation temperature at 95 °C for 5 min, followed by 30 cycles of denaturation at 95 °C for 1 min, annealing at 56 °C for 1 min and extension at 72 °C for 1 min. The final extension was done at 72 °C for 7 min. The PCR products obtained were electrophoresed using 1.5% Agarose gel stained with ethidium bromide along with 100 bp DNA ladder (Fermentas, USA), followed by gel documentation using gel documentation unit (Alpha Imager, Germany).

Elution and sequencing of the PCR products

The amplified band was eluted using QIAquick Gel Extraction Kit (QIAGEN GmbH, Germany) by following the instruction manual. The eluted bands were further quantified using both 1.5% Agarose gel electrophoresis and nanodrop before sequencing. The eluted solutions were sequenced using Big Dye Terminator cycle sequencing kit (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA) as per the manufacturer’s instructions on an ABI 3100 Avant Prism automated DNA sequencer (Applied Biosystems). The raw sequences obtained were viewed using ChromasLite v. 2.01 (http://www.technelysium.com.au) and curated manually.

Molecular characterization of the elite fungal endophytes and construction of dendrogram

The evolutionary history was inferred using the Neighbor-Joining method (Saitou and Nei 1987). The optimal tree with the sum of branch length = 0.35543798 is shown. The percentage of replicate trees in which the associated taxa clustered together in the bootstrap test (1000 replicates) are shown next to the branches (Felsenstein 1985). The evolutionary distances were computed using the Maximum Composite Likelihood method (Tamura et al. 2004) and are in the units of the number of base substitutions per site. The analysis involved 18 nucleotide sequences. Codon positions included were 1st + 2nd + 3rd + Noncoding. All positions containing gaps and missing data were eliminated. There were a total of 484 positions in the final dataset. Evolutionary analyses were conducted in MEGA6 (Tamura et al. 2013).

Submission of the fungal endophytes to culture collection repository

The pure cultures of the two efficient plumbagin enhancing fungal endophytes were submitted at National Fungal Culture Collection of India (FCCI), Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), Gopal Ganesh Agarkar Road, Pune, Maharashtra 411004, India for general deposition and were accessioned.

Experimental setup and fungal endophytic treatments to enhance plumbagin contents

The randomized block design was used for the experiment. Total four sets (using pots) in triplicate were made using sterile soil to grow the plants of P. zeylanica L. using different treatments. All the plants were grown in respective pots were kept at Botanical Garden, Department of Botany, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune. To Set-1 distilled water was added and it served as a control, furthermore, the other sets (Set-2, Set-3 and Set-4) were inoculated with the endophytic fungal (EF) inoculum (A suspension of 10 ml sterile water + Loop full of endophytic fungus culture) of the respective fungal endophytes (fungal endophyte 1, fungal endophyte 2 and fungal endophyte 3) once a month for a period of 12 months.

Harvesting of the roots for extraction of plumbagin

After completion of the 12 months of treatment, roots of the P. zeylanica were harvested to quantify the contents of plumbagin using Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry-Mas Spectra (LCMS-MS) technology.

Sample preparation for LCMS-MS analysis

Samples for the LCMS-MS analysis were prepared using the protocol of Hsieh et al. (2005) with desired modifications. 10 g roots of P. zeylanica were powdered and homogenized in 50 ml Tarson tubes with 10 ml methanol (HPLC grade, Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) and were sonicated for 10 min followed by centrifugation at 5000 rotations per minutes (rpm) for 10 min at 20 °C. The methanolic root extract was further filtered by passing through sieve of 0.40 µm size. The methanolic root extract of the plants were further used to quantify the plumbagin content using the LCMS-MS compared to the standard (plumbagin).

Preparation of standard plumbagin solution

1 mg/ml stock solution of the plumbagin powder (Hi-Media, Mumbai, India) using methanol (HPLC grade, Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) was made. Furthermore, the stock solution was diluted using methanol to get various working concentrations (0.1, 0.2, 0.5 and 1 μg/ml) of the standard plumbagin, respectively (Pawar et al. 2011).

LCMS-MS analysis of the methanolic root extracts

LCMS/MS is considered as most robust and sensitive technique to detect analytes at faster rate (Gallardo et al. 2009). The LCMS-MS analysis was executed at TUV Nord India Pvt. Ltd., Branch Baner, Pune. In the present study UPLCMS system ACQUITY UPLC I-Class (Waters, USA) was used to detect the plumbagin content in the methanolic root extract of the P. zeylanica. The UPLCMS system was equipped with a flow-through-needle injector design (SM-FTN) to accommodate the highest range of injection volume, to maximize recovery of the tested samples and to achieve the precision in the performance of the injection (Annonymous 2010). The ACQUITY BEH C18 (2.1 × 100 mm, 1.7 µm) column compartment of the UPLCMS system was coupled with Triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (SYNAPT G2-S HDMS, WATERS, USA) having with a positive ESI mode of detection. The mobile phase of solvent A (100% water) and solvent B (100% methanol) used for gradient elution with [0–0.00 min (60% A, 40% B), 3.0 min (linear gradient to 40% B), 3.00–5.00 min (80% A, 20% B), 5 min (linear gradient to 80% A), 5.00–8.00 min (60% A, 40% B), 8 min (linear gradient to 60% A)] at a flow rate of 0.300 ml/min. The temperature of column oven was maintained at 45 °C, and the injection volume was 5 μl. The conditions of MS system was operated at positive ESI mode and the ions were detected using multiple reactions monitoring (MRM) mode (Additional file 1: Table S1) with 150 °C gas temperature, 1000 l/h gas flow rate and 550 °C as gas sheath temperature.

Data processing and analysis

The data files of the LCMS-MS analysis were obtained using Waters’ Mass Lynx Software. The generated data was further processed and analysed using Target Lynx Software.

Calculation of percent enhancement of the plumbagin

The percentage of the plumbagin enhancement was determined using the given formula:

$${\text{\% EP}} = \frac{{{\text{Amount of plumbagin }}\left( {\text{ppm}} \right) {\text{in the TP}} - {\text{Amount of plumbagin }}\left( {\text{ppm}} \right){\text{in the CP}}}}{{{\text{Amount of plumbagin }}\left( {\text{ppm}} \right){\text{in CP}}}} \times 100$$

whereas, % EP: percent enhancement of plumbagin, CP: control plants, TP: treated plants.

Statistical analysis

All the treatments were in triplicates. The means and standard deviation to the mean values were calculated using MS Excel, 2010. To test the significance of the results at 0.05 level of significance, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed using SPSS Inc software (SPSS 16, 2017).

Results

Identification of the collected P. zeylanica

The collected plant accession of the Plumbago sp. was identified and authenticated at Botanical survey of India (BSI) Western Circle Pune (No. BSI/WRC/Cert./2015) as Plumbago zeylanica L.

Isolation of the fungal endophytes

Only three fungal endophytes (fungal endophytes 1, fungal endophytes 2 and fungal endophytes 3) were reported from the collected roots of the P. zeylanica.

Estimation of plumbagin contents in P. zeylanica L. after the treatment of fungal endophytes

The percent increment of the plumbagin

Fungal endophytes reported to influence the synthesis of plumbagin in P. zeylanica L. plants after 1 year of the treatment at in vivo level. Among the three fungal endophytes, Alternaria sp. (fungal endophytes-3) reported highest increment in the plumbagin contents by 122.68 ± 0.97%. Whereas reduction in the contents of plumbagin contents of the P. zeylanica plant treated with Rhizopus sp. was also recorded with 35.3618 ± 1.78% (Fig. 1). The concentration of the plumbagin was determined by comparing the LCMS-MS profile of the treated samples with the standard plumbagin profile. The calibration curve obtained from standard Plumbagin with known concentrations is shown in Additional file 2: Figure S1. The chromatogram of standard Plumbagin, the representative chromatograms of the control plant and the treated plants with the respective fungal endophytes are shown in Additional file 2: Figure S1F, respectively. The fungal endophyte, Aspergillus sp. (fungal endophytes 2) also reported to enhance the contents of plumbagin (87.17136 ± 1.77% increment) significantly (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
figure1

Percent enhancement of plumbagin contents in Plumbago zeylanica plants with the treatment of fungal endophytes. #Different letters over the error bars indicate the significant level of difference at 0.05 level of significance

Full size image

Characterization of the fungal endophytes

Morphological characterization of the fungal endophytes

At preliminary level all the three fungal endophytes were characterised at morphological level (Table 1) at National Fungal Culture Collection of India (NFCCI), Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), Pune (Ref. No. 3/426/2015/Myc, dated 28/04/2015). Based on morphological keys, fungal endophyte 1, fungal endophyte 2 and fungal endophyte 3 were identified as Rhizopus sp., Aspergillus phoenicis and Alternaria sp. respectively.

Table 1 Identification of the endophytic fungal isolates of P. zeylanica
Full size table

Molecular characterization of the elite fungal endophytes

After morphological characterization, only the elite fungal endophyte (fungal endophyte 2 and fungal endophyte 3) were characterized based ITS gene sequencing technology. The two elite fungal endophytes were identified as Aspergillus sp. (fungal endophyte 2) and Alternaria sp. (fungal endophyte 3) (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2
figure2

Molecular phylogenetic analysis of the endophytic fungi of Plumbago zeylanica by maximum likelihood method along with the homologous ITS sequences retrieved from the gene bank (NCBI)

Full size image

Deposition of the elite fungal endophytes to the microbial repository

The elite fungal endophytes were submitted at NFCCI, ARI, Pune for general deposition and were accessioned as NFCCI-4581 and NFCCI-4582.

Discussion

Plumbagin is one of the potential anticancer molecules with potential to treat human breast cancer cells (De et al. 2019) and esophageal cancer cells (Cao et al. 2018) etc. and is emerging as a lead pharmaceutical for cancer therapy (Tripathi et al. 2019). As plumbagin is synthesized by the plants of various botanical families in minute quantity, huge quantity of plant material is required to meet the emerging demands of the pharmaceuticals companies, which results in loss of the germplasm if the practice continued with the same pace. So it is needed to enhance the contents of plumbagin using biotechnological approaches (Roy and Bharadvaja 2018). As per literature, the interaction between the fungi and plants leads to enhance the capabilities to synthesise the secondary metabolites efficiently and also enable the plants to withstand in the harsh environmental conditions (Pusztahelyi et al. 2015). As per reports, there are various methods available used to enhance the secondary metabolite in plants; however, technique employing microbes seems most cost-effective. Among the microbes, endophytes have reported to enhance the contents of secondary metabolites efficiently (Maggini et al. 2017).

Two fungal endophytes viz. Curvularia sp. CATDLF5 and Choanephora infundibulifera CATDLF6 were reported to enhance the contents of vindoline in Catharanthus roseus by 229–403% (Pandey et al. 2016). The alteration of secondary metabolites was also reported in Coleus forskohlii due to the application of endophytic fungus, Piriformospora indica (Das et al. 2012). Almost all plants are considered as the desired host of various endophytes (Kusari et al. 2012). The endophyte enjoys their stay intracellularly or intracellularly in the host plant (Bernardi-Wenzel et al. 2010) without toxicating (Ryan et al. 2008; Lodewyckx et al. 2002), reported to colonise different plant parts (Bernardi-Wenzel et al. 2010), enable the plants to improvise its nutrient uptake, stress tolerance and enhance defence system against the pathogens (Knoth et al. 2014; Rodriguez and Redman 2008; Schulz and Boyle 2005). As per reports various endophytes are reported to synthesise the secondary metabolites similar to the one synthesised by the plants (Kusari et al. 2008; Kusari et al. 2009; Soliman et al. 2011; Vasundhara et al. 2016). Recently an endophytic fungus Cladosporium delicatulum, was reported from the leaves and stems of some endemic medicinal plants (Terminalia pallida, Rhynchosia beddomei, Pterocarpus santalinus) of Eastern Ghats region of Andhra Pradesh with potential to produce plumbagin (Venkateswarulu et al. 2018). They further predicted that the interaction of this endophytic fungus and the plant may leads to enhance the contents of plumbagin in plants.

In the present study, we have isolated three endophytic fungi [Rhizopus sp. (fungal endophyte 1), Aspergillus sp. fungal endophyte 2, and Alternaria sp. (fungal endophyte 3] from the roots of the P. zeylanica. The plants of the P. zeylanica were treated with different fungal endophytes (once a month) and to the control plants only distilled water was added. After completion of 1 year, the plants were harvested and the methanolic root extracts were subjected to LCMS-MS analysis and we have reported highest enhancement of plumbagin contents (122.68 ± 0.97%) in the plants treated with Alternaria sp. (fungal endophyte 3). The fungal endophyte Alternaria alternata enjoys a vast variety of host plants which belongs to different families viz. Pinus tabulaeformis (Guo et al. 2004), Terminalia pallida (stem and leaves) (Venkateswarulu et al. 2018), yew tree (inner bark) (Chen et al. 2009), Taxus cuspidate (Vasundhara et al. 2016) etc. Depending upon the host of endophytic fungus (Alternaria sp.) various types of active biomolecules are reported to be synthesised by this endophytes with important function viz. anticancer, antimicrobial and anti HIV, antidiabetic and anti-oxidant (Eram et al. 2018). We have also reported the enhancement of anticancer molecule (plumbagin) with this Alternaria sp. Although we have not checked the production of plumbagin by the said endophytes. This may be due to plant growth promoting nature of the fungal endophyte. Further, the exact mechanism through which these endophytes lead to enhancement of secondary metabolite is still a mystery. Recently, Cladosporium delicatulum, an endophytic fungus reported to synthesise plumbagin naturally (Venkateswarulu et al. 2018).

In our study, with another fungal endophyte, Rhizopus sp. we recorded reduction in plumbagin content in the P. zeylanica. In literature, Rhizopus stolinifer is reported as an endophytic fungus with potential to synthesise various secondary metabolites with medicinal importance (Palombo 2011; Faisal et al. 2016), we were expecting enhancement of plumbagin in P. zeylanica using Rhizopus sp. but we got negative results. Majority of the Rhizopus sp. are reported to have pathogenic nature (Ibrahim et al. 2012; Ibrahim and Kontoyiannis 2013) and might be the possible reason for reduction in plumbagin content. Previously, researcher quantified the contents of the plumbagin using TLC, HPTLC (Andhale and Ade 2013) and HPLC (Panichayupakaranant and Tewtrakul 2002; Dorni et al. 2007; Unnikrishnan et al. 2008; Pandey et al. 2013). In the present study, we had employed LCMS-MS tool for the estimation of plumbagin contents in the methanolic root extracts of both control and treated plant. LCMS is the most sophisticated method to detect the contents of the secondary metabolites even at low concentration than other methods of quantification and detection.

The endophytic fungi were characterised at both morphological and molecular level and we have reported change in the identification of the fungal endophytes. During the morphological characterization, fungal endophyte 1, 2, and 3 were identified as Rhizopus sp., Aspergillus phoenicis and Alternaria sp. However based on ITS gene sequencing tool, the elite fungal endophytes were identified as Aspergillus sp. (fungal endophyte 2) and Alternaria sp. (fungal endophyte 3).

To the best of our knowledge this is the first report on plumbagin enhancement due to endophytic fungi and P. zeylanica interaction. Further study is needed to unravel the mechanism associated with the enhancement of plumbagin contents due to interaction of these fungal endophytes.

Conclusions

The present study reported three fungal endophytes from the roots of P. zeylanica. After 1 year the pot-grown plants of P. zeylanica reported enhanced production of Plumbagin contents under the influence of the fungal endophytes. Among the three fungal endophytes, maximum enhancement of plumbagin contents (122.68 ± 0.97%) in P. zeylanica was recorded with the endophytic fungus (Alternaria sp. fungal endophyte 3) at in vivo level.

Data availability

Data would be available on request to corresponding author.

References

  1. Ahmad I, Mehmood Z, Mohammad F (1998) Screening of some Indian medicinal plants for their antimicrobial properties. J Ethnopharmacol 62:183–193. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-8741(98)00055-5

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Aljanabi SM, Martinez I (1997) Universal and rapid salt-extraction of high quality genomic DNA for PCR-based techniques. Nucleic Acids Res 25:4692–4693. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/25.22.4692

    CAS  Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Andhale NB, Ade AB (2013) In vivo enhancement of Plumbagin in Plumbago zeylanica L. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany

    Google Scholar 

  4. Annonymous (2010) Repeatable delivering linear, and accurate injection volumes for UPLC and HPLC Waters Corporation (https://www.waters.com/webassets/cms/library/docs/720003445en.pdf). Accessed 24 Jan 2019

  5. Aziz MH, Dreckschmidt NE, Verma AK (2008) Plumbagin, a medicinal plant derived naphthoquinone, is a novel inhibitor of the growth and invasion of hormone-refractory prostate cancer. Cancer Res 68:9024–9032. https://doi.org/10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-08-2494

    CAS  Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Bernardi-Wenzel J, Garcia A, Celso Filho JR, Prioli AJ, Pamphile JA (2010) Evaluation of foliar fungal endophyte diversity and colonization of medicinal plant Luehea divaricata (Martius et Zuccarini). Biol Res 43:375–384. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0716-97602010000400001

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Cao YY, Yu J, Liu TT, Yang KX, Yang LY, Chen Q, Shi F, Hao JJ, Cai Y, Wang MR, Lu WH (2018) Plumbagin inhibits the proliferation and survival of esophageal cancer cells by blocking STAT3-PLK1-AKT signaling. Cell Death Dis 9:1–13. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41419-017-0068-6

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Chen J, Qiu X, Wang R, Duan L, Chen S, Luo J, Kong L (2009) Inhibition of human gastric carcinoma cell growth in vitro and in vivo by cladosporol isolated from the paclitaxel-producing strain Alternaria alternata var. monosporus. Biol Pharm Bull 32:2072–2074. https://doi.org/10.1248/bpb.32.2072

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Das A, Kamal S, Shakil NA, Sherameti I, Oelmüller R, Dua M, Tuteja N, Johri AK, Varma A (2012) The root endophyte fungus Piriformospora indica leads to early flowering, higher biomass and altered secondary metabolites of the medicinal plant, Coleus forskohlii. Plant Signal Behav 7:103–112. https://doi.org/10.4161/psb.7.1.18472

    CAS  Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. De U, Son JY, Jeon Y, Ha SY, Park YJ, Yoon S, Ha KT, Choi WS, Lee BM, Kim IS, Kwak JH (2019) Plumbagin from a tropical pitcher plant (Nepenthes alata Blanco) induces apoptotic cell death via a p53-dependent pathway in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells. Food Chem Toxicol 123:492–500. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fct.2018.11.040

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Dohare B, Jain B, Khare S, Jain K (2015) Comparative estimation of plumbagin in aerial and root part of Plumbago zeylanica using UV-Visible Spectrophotometric. UK J Pharm Biosci 3:9–14. https://doi.org/10.20510/ukjpb/3/i3/89384

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Dorni AIC, Vidyalakshmi KS, Vasanthi RH, Rajamanickam GV, Dubey GP (2007) HPTLC method for the quantification of plumbagin in three Plumbago species. Res J Phytochem 1:46–51. https://doi.org/10.3923/rjphyto.2007.46.51

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Eram D, Arthikala M-K, Melappa G, Santoyo G (2018) Alternaria species: endophytic fungi as alternative sources of bioactive compounds. Ital J Mycol 47:40–54. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2531-7342/8468

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Faisal MP, Prasad L, Icar-Iisr RS (2016) A potential source of methyl-eugenol from secondary metabolite of Rhizopus oryzae 6975. Int J Appl Biol Pharm Technol 7:187–192. https://doi.org/10.21276/ijabpt

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Felsenstein J (1985) Confidence limits on phylogenies: an approach using the bootstrap. Evolution 39:783–791. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.1985.tb00420.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Gallardo E, Barroso M, Queiroz JA (2009) LC-MS: a powerful tool in workplace drug testing. Drug Test Anal 1:109–115. https://doi.org/10.1002/dta.26

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Gunaherath GMKB, Gunatilaka AAL, Sultanbawa MUS, Balasubramaniam S (1983) 1,2 (3)-Tetrahydro-3,3′-biplumbagin: a naphthalenone and other constituents from Plumbago zeylanica. Phytochemistry 22:1245–1247. https://doi.org/10.1016/0031-9422(83)80232-5

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Guo L, Xu L, Zheng W-H, Hyde KD (2004) Genetic variation of Alternaria alternata, an endophytic fungus isolated from Pinus tabulaeformis as determined by random amplified microsatelites (RAMS). Fungal Divers 16:53–65

    Google Scholar 

  19. Hallmann J, Berg G, Schulz B (2006) Isolation procedures for endophytic microorganisms. In: Schulz BJE, Boyle CJC, Sieber TN (eds) Microbial root endophytes. Springer, Berlin, pp 299–319

    Google Scholar 

  20. Hsieh Y-J, Lin L-C, Tsai T-H (2005) Determination and identification of plumbagin from the roots of Plumbago zeylanica L. by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. J Chromatogr A 1083:141–145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chroma.2005.06.030

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Ibrahim AS, Kontoyiannis DP (2013) Update on mucormycosis pathogenesis. Curr Opin Infect Dis 26:508. https://doi.org/10.1097/QCO.0000000000000008

    CAS  Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  22. Ibrahim AS, Spellberg B, Walsh TJ, Kontoyiannis DP (2012) Pathogenesis of mucormycosis. Clin Infect Dis 54(1):S16–S22. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/cir865

    CAS  Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  23. Jain P, Sharma HP, Basri F, Baraik B, Kumari S, Pathak C (2014) Pharmacological profiles of ethno-medicinal plant: plumbago zeylanica L.—a review. Int J Pharm Sci Rev Res 24:157–163

    Google Scholar 

  24. Jaisi A, Panichayupakaranant P (2016) Increased production of plumbagin in Plumbago indica root cultures by biotic and abiotic elicitors. Biotechnol Lett 38:351–355. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-015-1969-z

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Jaisi A, Sakunphueak A, Panichayupakaranant P (2013) Increased production of plumbagin in Plumbago indica root cultures by gamma ray irradiation. Pharm Biol 51:1047–1051. https://doi.org/10.3109/13880209.2013.775163

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Jalalpure SS (2011) A comprehensive review on Plumbago zeylanica Linn. Afr J Pharm Pharmacol 5:2738–2747. https://doi.org/10.5897/AJPP11.739

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Knoth JL, Kim S-H, Ettl GJ, Doty SL (2014) Biological nitrogen fixation and biomass accumulation within poplar clones as a result of inoculations with diazotrophic endophyte consortia. New Phytol 201:599–609. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.12536

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Komaraiah P, Amrutha RN, Kishor PBK, Ramakrishna SV (2002) Elicitor enhanced production of plumbagin in suspension cultures of Plumbago rosea L. Enzyme Microb Technol 31:634–639. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0141-0229(02)00159-X

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Kusari S, Lamshöft M, Zühlke S, Spiteller M (2008) An endophytic fungus from Hypericum perforatum that produces hypericin. J Nat Prod 71:159–162. https://doi.org/10.1021/np070669k

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Kusari S, Lamshöft M, Spiteller M (2009) Aspergillus fumigatus Fresenius, an endophytic fungus from Juniperus communis L. Horstmann as a novel source of the anticancer pro-drug deoxypodophyllotoxin. J Appl Microbiol 107:1019–1030. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2672.2009.04285.x

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Kusari S, Hertweck C, Spiteller M (2012) Chemical ecology of endophytic fungi: origins of secondary metabolites. Chem Biol 19:792–798. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chembiol.2012.06.004

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Liu Y, Cai Y, He C, Chen M, Li H (2017) Anticancer properties and pharmaceutical applications of plumbagin: a review. Am J Chin Med 45:423–441. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0192415X17500264

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Lodewyckx C, Vangronsveld J, Porteous F, Moore ERB, Taghavi S, Mezgeay M, der Lelie DV (2002) Endophytic bacteria and their potential applications. Crit Rev Plant Sci 21:583–606. https://doi.org/10.1080/0735-260291044377

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Maggini V, De Leo M, Mengoni A, Gallo ER, Miceli E, Reidel RV, Biffi S, Pistelli L, Fani R, Firenzuoli F, Bogani P (2017) Plant-endophytes interaction influences the secondary metabolism in Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench: an in vitro model. Sci Rep 7:16924. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-17110-w

    CAS  Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  35. Martin KP, Sabovljevic A, Madassery J (2011) High-frequency transgenic plant regeneration and plumbagin production through methyl jasmonate elicitation from hairy roots of Plumbago indica L. J Crop Sci Biotechnol 14(3):205–212. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12892-010-0123-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Ming Y, Wang J, Yang J, Liu W (2011) Chemical Constituents of Plumbago zeylanica L. Adv Mater Res 308–310:1662–1664. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.308-310.1662

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Mukherjee D (2017) Medicinal and aromatic plants: wealth of India at high and low altitudes. Adv Plant Physiol 17:425

    Google Scholar 

  38. Padhye S, Dandawate P, Yusufi M, Ahmad A, Sarkar FH (2012) Perspectives on medicinal properties of plumbagin and its analogs. Med Res Rev 32:1131–1158. https://doi.org/10.1002/med.20235

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Paiva SR, Figueiredo MR, Aragão TV, Kaplan MA (2003) Antimicrobial activity in vitro of plumbagin isolated from Plumbago species. Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz 98:959–961. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0074-02762003000700017

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Palombo EA (2011) Traditional medicinal plant extracts and natural products with activity against oral bacteria: potential application in the prevention and treatment of oral diseases. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2011:1–15. https://doi.org/10.1093/ecam/nep067

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Pandey R, Shukla S, Saraf S, Saraf S (2013) Standardization and validated high-performance thin-layer chromatographic fingerprint method for quantitative determination of plumbagin in a traditional Indian formulation. J Planar Chromatogr Mod 26:440–444. https://doi.org/10.1556/JPC.26.2013.5.9

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Pandey SS, Singh S, Babu CSV, Shanker K, Srivastava NK, Shukla AK, Kalra A (2016) Fungal endophytes of Catharanthus roseus enhance vindoline content by modulating structural and regulatory genes related to terpenoid indole alkaloid biosynthesis. Sci Rep 6:26583. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep26583

    CAS  Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  43. Panichayupakaranant P, Tewtrakul S (2002) Plumbagin production by root cultures of Plumbago rosea. Electron J Biotechnol 5:11–12

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Pant M, Lal A, Rana S, Rani A (2012) Plumbago zeylanica L.: a mini review. Int J Pharm Appl 3:399–405

    Google Scholar 

  45. Patwardhan B, Vaidya ADB, Chorghade M (2004) Ayurveda and natural products drug discovery. Curr Sci 25:789–799

    Google Scholar 

  46. Pusztahelyi T, Holb IJ, Pocsi I (2015) Secondary metabolites in fungus-plant interactions. Front Plant Sci 6:573. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2015.00573

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  47. Pawar RK, Sharma S, Singh KC, Sharma RK (2010) HPTLC method for the determination of Plumbagin from Plumbago zeylanica Linn. (root). Int J Pharm Pharm Sci 2:219–23

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  48. Rodriguez R, Redman R (2008) More than 400 million years of evolution and some plants still can’t make it on their own: plant stress tolerance via fungal symbiosis. J Exp Bot 59:1109–1114. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erm342

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  49. Roy A, Bharadvaja N (2018) Biotechnological approaches for the production of pharmaceutically important compound: plumbagin. Curr Pharm Biotechnol 19:372–381. https://doi.org/10.2174/1389201019666180629143842

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  50. Roy A, Bharadvaja N (2019) Establishment of root suspension culture of Plumbago zeylanica and enhanced production of plumbagin. Ind Crops Prod 137:419–427. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2019.05.007

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Ryan RP, Germaine K, Franks A, Ryan DJ, Dowling DN (2008) Bacterial endophytes: recent developments and applications. FEMS Microbiol Lett 278:1–9. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-6968.2007.00918.x

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  52. Saitou N, Nei M (1987) The neighbor-joining method: a new method for reconstructing phylogenetic trees. Mol Biol Evol 4:406–425. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a040454

    CAS  Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  53. Schulz B, Boyle C (2005) The endophytic continuum. Mycol Res 109:661–686. https://doi.org/10.1017/S095375620500273X

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  54. Sinha S, Pal K, Elkhanany A, Dutta S, Cao Y, Mondal G, Iyer S, Somasundaram V, Couch FJ, Shridhar V, Bhattacharya R (2013) Plumbagin inhibits tumorigenesis and angiogenesis of ovarian cancer cells in vivo. Int J Cancer 132:1201–1212. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.27724

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  55. Soliman SSM, Tsao R, Raizada MN (2011) Chemical inhibitors suggest endophytic fungal paclitaxel is derived from both mevalonate and non-mevalonate-like pathways. J Nat Prod 74:2497–2504. https://doi.org/10.1021/np200303v

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  56. Tamura K, Nei M, Kumar S (2004) Prospects for inferring very large phylogenies by using the neighbor-joining method. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101:11030–11035. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0404206101

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  57. Tamura K, Stecher G, Peterson D, Filipski A, Kumar S (2013) MEGA6: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis version 6.0. Mol Biol Evol 30:2725–2729. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/mst197

    CAS  Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  58. Tilak JC, Adhikari S, Devasagayam TPA (2004) Antioxidant properties of Plumbago zeylanica, an Indian medicinal plant and its active ingredient, plumbagin. Redox Rep 9:219–227. https://doi.org/10.1179/135100004225005976

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  59. Tripathi SK, Panda M, Biswal BK (2019) Emerging role of plumbagin: cytotoxic potential and pharmaceutical relevance towards cancer therapy. Food Chem Toxicol 125:566–582. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fct.2019.01.018

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  60. Unnikrishnan KP, Raja SS, Balachandran I (2008) A reverse phase HPLC-UV and HPTLC methods for determination of plumbagin in Plumbago indica and Plumbago zeylanica. Indian J Pharm Sci 70:844. https://doi.org/10.4103/0250-474X.49142

    CAS  Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  61. Vasundhara M, Kumar A, Reddy MS (2016) Molecular approaches to screen bioactive compounds from endophytic fungi. Front Microbiol 7:1774. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2016.01774

    CAS  Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  62. Venkateswarulu N, Shameer S, Bramhachari PV, Basha SKT, Nagaraju C, Vijaya T (2018) Isolation and characterization of plumbagin (5-hydroxyl-2-methylnaphthalene-1,4-dione) producing endophytic fungi Cladosporium delicatulum from endemic medicinal plants. Biotechnol Rep 20:e00282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.btre.2018.e00282

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  63. Vijver LM, Looter AP (1971) The constituents of the roots of Plumbago auriculata and P. zeylanica responsible for antimicrobial activity. Plant Med 20:8–13. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0028-1099658

    Article  Google Scholar 

  64. Vishnukanta RAC, Rana AC (2010) Evaluation of anticonvulsant activity of Plumbago zeylanica Linn leaf extract. Asian J Pharm Clin Res 3:76–78

    Google Scholar 

  65. White TJ, Bruns T, Lee S, Taylor JL (1990) Amplification and direct sequencing of fungal ribosomal RNA genes for phylogenetics. In: Innis MA, Gelfand DH, Sninsky JJ, White TJ (eds) PCR protocols: a guide to methods and applications. Academic Press, London, pp 315–322

    Google Scholar 

  66. Zhang QR, Mei Z-N, Yang GZ, Xiao YX (2007) Chemical constituents from aerial parts of Plumbago zeylanica. J Chin Med Mater 30:558–560

    CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

All authors are highly thankful to NFCCI-ARI for identification of the fungal endophytes and TUV Nord India Pvt. Ltd., Branch Baner, Pune for LCMS-MS analysis. NBA is thankful to the Principal, Fergusson College for allowing me to carry-out the research work and Head, Department of Botany, SP Pune University for providing the facility needed for the present work. MS is thankful to DST-SERB (PDF/2017/000178) for National Post-doctoral Fellowship.

Funding

Not applicable.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Mohd. Shahnawaz

    Present address: Plant Biotechnology Division, CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Canal Road Jammu, Jammu, J&K, 180001, India

Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Ganeshkhind, Pune, Maharashtra, 411007, India

    Namdeo B. Andhale, Mohd. Shahnawaz & Avinash B. Ade

  2. Department of Biology, Fergusson College, FC Road, Shivajinagar, Pune, MS, 411004, India

    Namdeo B. Andhale

Authors
  1. Namdeo B. Andhale
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mohd. Shahnawaz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Avinash B. Ade
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

ABA designed the problem, NBA executed the experiments. NBA, MS and ABA analysed the data and results. NBA and MS wrote the manuscript. MS communicated the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Mohd. Shahnawaz or Avinash B. Ade.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare there they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Additional file 1: Table S1.

Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM) Transition of plumbagin.

Additional file 2: Figure S1

. Estimation of the Plumbagin using LCMS-MS analysis, A: Calibration curve of Plumbagin, B: Chromatogram representing the standard Plumbagin, C: Chromatogram representing the mass and peak of the plumbagin in the methanolic root extract of control plants, D: Chromatogram of representing the mass and peak of the plumbagin in the methanolic root extract of the plants treated with Isolate-1, E: Chromatogram representing the mass and peak of the plumbagin in the methanolic root extract of the plants treated with Isolate-2, F: Chromatogram representing the mass and peak of the plumbagin in the methanolic root extract of the plants treated with Isolate-3.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Andhale, N.B., Shahnawaz, M. & Ade, A.B. Fungal endophytes of Plumbago zeylanica L. enhances plumbagin content. Bot Stud 60, 21 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40529-019-0270-1

Download citation

Keywords

  • Plumbago zeylanica
  • Secondary metabolites
  • Plumbagin
  • Endophytic fungi
  • Enhancement