Harnessing endophytes for enhancing the production of valuable plant secondary metabolites

The vast diversity of plant species on Earth harbors an equally rich and untapped reservoir of microbial endophytes, offering immense potential for sustainable development and biotechnological innovations. The plant microbiome is a key regulator of plant secondary metabolic pathways. This interaction could be exploited to increase the production of phytochemicals of commercial interest. These phytochemicals have diverse applications in industry, agriculture, and pharmaceuticals. The growing potential of endophytes as bio-factories for synthesizing bioactive phytochemicals is particularly intriguing. Recent breakthroughs in host-independent metabolite synthesis by endophytes present an interesting alternative to over harvesting endangered medicinal plants. The examples of host-free metabolite production and bioprocessing techniques for harnessing the endophytes to improve plant metabolite production have been thoroughly examined. This review sheds light on the omics technologies poised to transform endophyte-plant interactome research and its potential applications.