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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Systems Microbiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1540669
This article is part of the Research Topic Investigating the Role of Microorganisms in Ecosystems and Their Interactions with the Humans, Animals, Plants, and Environment Interface View all 5 articles
Spatiotemporal Composition and Diversity of Endophyte Communities in Dracaena cambodiana on Hainan Island
Provisionally accepted- 1 Hainan Branch of the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Haikou, China
- 2 Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
Dracaena cambodiana produces red resin after being injured. This resin is known as Dragon's blood and is used worldwide as a traditional medicine and a valuable dye. Endophytes may play a role in the resin-formation process, and efficient artificial induction techniques for resin production may be developed based on these endophytes. In this study, ITS and metagenomic sequencing analyzed endophyte communities' characteristics and functional traits in different tissues and D. cambodiana across multiple wild populations on Hainan Island. Distinct fungal genera were found to be dominant across tissues. Gene abundance analysis revealed that the expression of endophytic fungal genes significantly changed after injury, suggesting that metabolic pathways associated with resin metabolism, sucrose metabolism, signal transduction, phenylalanine metabolism, and other processes relevant to resin formation might be involved. Additionally, several glycosylation gene families were upregulated in the postinjury endophytic communities, suggesting a role in flavonoid transport and the mitigation of autotoxic effects. Isolating endophytes from specific tissues or using synthetic communities may improve resin yield while avoiding pathogenic fungi to ensure safety. This study investigated the spatiotemporal structure and functional characteristics of endophyte communities in D. cambodiana, focusing on their dynamic changes across tissues, regions, and stages of resin formation. Such changes provide a theoretical basis for the development of high-efficiency induction techniques.
Keywords: Dracaena cambodiana1, Endophytic fungi2, Secondary metabolite biosynthesis3, signal transduction4, Metagenomic sequencing5
Received: 06 Dec 2024; Accepted: 14 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Liu, Yang, Yang, Peng, Xu and Wei. 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:
Jian He Wei, Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100193, Beijing Municipality, China
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