REVIEW article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Synthetic Biology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1666908
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancements in microbial engineering for natural product synthesisView all 3 articles
Recent advances in Polygonaceae endophytes: diversity, secondary metabolites and biotechnological applications
Provisionally accepted
- Jiangxi Science and Technology Normal University, Nanchang, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The Polygonaceae family comprises numerous traditional Chinese medicinal herbs and serves as a significant source of natural products with bioactive properties. Endophytes, which colonize the internal tissues of plants, have various beneficial effects on their hosts. The diverse communities of endophytes within Polygonaceae plants can promote host growth and enhance stress resistance by producing plant hormones and improving the metabolic levels of host cells. Additionally, endophytes can induce the accumulation of secondary metabolites in host plants. Furthermore, endophytes possess the capability to produce a variety of bioactive compounds, which can be further utilized in the biosynthesis of natural pharmaceuticals. Although research on endophytes of Polygonaceae plants has made notable progress, it has been rarely reviewed comprehensively. This review focuses on the diversity of endophytes and their effects on host plants in four representative genera of Chinese medicinal Polygonaceae: Reynoutria, Fagopyrum, Rheum, and Rumex. We also discuss the application of bioactive metabolites produced by these endophytes and summarize recent advances in their biosynthesis in microbial cell factories. The review aims to provide insights into the identification and application of endophytic microbial resources from Polygonaceae plants.
Keywords: Polygonaceae, Endophytes, secondary metabolites, Growth-promoting, Stress Tolerance, Bioactivities
Received: 16 Jul 2025; Accepted: 15 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen and Tang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Rui-Qi Tang, rq_tang@jxstnu.edu.cn
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.