Phylogenetic and chemical diversity of fungal endophytes isolated from Silybum marianum (L) Gaertn. (milk thistle).

ABSTRACT: Use of the herb milk thistle (Silybum marianum) is widespread, and its chemistry has been studied for over 50 years. However, milk thistle endophytes have not been studied previously for their fungal and chemical diversity. We examined the fungal endophytes inhabiting this medicinal herb to determine: (1) species composition and phylogenetic diversity of fungal endophytes; (2) chemical diversity of secondary metabolites produced by these organisms; and (3) cytotoxicity of the pure compounds against the human prostate carcinoma (PC-3) cell line. Forty-one fungal isolates were identified from milk thistle comprising 25 operational taxonomic units based on BLAST search via GenBank using published authentic sequences from nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer sequence data. Maxi

SUBMITTER: Raja HA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4409047 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature