Abstract

Endophytes are microorganism colonizing healthy plants tissue without causing any apparent symptoms and noticeable injury to the host. Both fungi and bacteria are the most common microbes existing as endophytes and are to be found in virtually every plant on earth. It is also suspected that other type of microorganism’s viz. archaebacteria and mycoplasmas can undoubtedly exist in plants as endophytes, but no such evidence for them has yet been explored. In recent year’s special attention have been made to endophytic fungi because of its ability to produce good number of new and interesting bioactive secondary metabolites, which are of pharmaceutical, industrial and agricultural importance. Several decades of research and numerous articles on endophytic fungi in plants have resulted in a surfeit of knowledge of the group. The data in part however, has been biased by the methodology used, and one question that should come to our mind is “how much do we really know about fungal endophytes? This review will concentrate on what has been discovered, and what is still unknown about endophytic fungi.