Figure 1.

Sequential events involved in the isolation and characterisation of bioactive compounds derived from fungal endophytes. For the isolation of a fungal endophyte associated with a medicinal plant, plant tissue samples are grown on selected media. After a certain period of a time, fungal endophytes grow on a media plate. Further, individual fungal strain can be identified using microscopic and molecular approaches after sub-culturing of fungal endophytes. Molecular identification involves isolation of genomic DNA of fungal endophytes followed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. BLASTn analysis of raw sequences obtained from sequencing of PCR products leads to the identification of the fungal strain. For large-scale production of the fungal strain, strains are grown in liquid culture. Fungal-endophyte-derived bioactive compounds are isolated in ethanol or methanol extract. Biological assays are applied to test the efficiency of extracted bioactive compounds. Isolated bioactive compounds are subjected to nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)-based studies for the molecular identification and quantification. Genome editing approach may be applied to enhance the production of most effective bioactive compounds which could be further tested for drug discovery and development after preclinical and clinical trials