Endophytes from the Cactaceae family and its application

Abstract

Species of the Cactaceae family inhabit areas with high temperatures, water scarcity, and nutrient-deficient soils. This is a result of complex processes such as physiological and physical adaptations, in addition to coevolution with endophytic microorganisms, which are inhabit plant tissues and can have relevant importance for the plant such as their establishment in rocky strata, theatmospheric nitrogen and phosphorus fixation by bacteria, or the antimicrobial action by fungi. Bioprospecting studies on endophytes of cacti are still scarce, so this work compiles the scientific literature on endophytic bacteria and fungi of cacti available in the databases Dialnet, DOAJ, EBSCO, Google académico, iSEEK, Redalyc, REDIB, Science Direct, SciFinder, SciELO, Springer, Web of Science and Wiley Online Library. The review yielded 22 papers published in 33 years; only 36% of them analyzed their bioactivity. The use of endophytes for biotechnological transfer is highlighted, mainly for social benefit (agricultural and medical purposes), as well as conservation.