Endophytic Fungi: Are they Potential Candidates for the Production of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids?

One hundred and fifty endophytic fungi were isolated from different plant samples. Their total lipid and fatty acid profile were analysed. Our results show that the total lipid content in 50% of the isolated endophytic fungi ranged between10-14% and in the remaining 50% ranged between 7-9%. None of the endophytic fungi tested were found to be oleaginous in nature (accumulating more than 20% lipid). The endophytic fungi produced saturated fatty acids i.e palmitic acid, stearic acid, and monounsaturated- oleic acid in the range of 13-23%, linoleic acid from 40-50%, and alpha-linolenic acid- 2-14%. Few endophytic fungi accumulated arachidonic acid in a very low concentration i.e. 0.1-0.3%. The results of our study suggest that, endophytic fungi are capable of producing the precursors of PUFAs i.e. linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid but not the pharmaceutically important PUFA’s as such. Our work also revealed that, there is not much difference in fatty acid profile of all the endophytic fungi isolated by us, irrespective of the differences in the living conditions (such as nutritional and environmental parameters) of the plants from which they were isolate