Study on the endophytic bacterial community of Panax vietnamensis and its interaction with the host plant in the production of biologically active compounds

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Sebastian Günther
• Subject Area: Organismic Interactions, Chemical Ecology and Microbiomes of Plant Systems ; Pharmacy
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 540562879

Medicinal plants and the natural compounds derived from them continue to be essential for 80% of the world's population to meet their healthcare needs, and they are widely used in traditional medicine. For some of these medicinal plants, such as Ginseng, effects have also been demonstrated in evidence-based medicine. It is believed that endophytic communities play a crucial role in supporting plant growth, controlling plant health, and in the production of pharmaceutically bioactive compounds. In this project, two research groups are collaborating: the Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology at the Institute of Microbiology and Biotechnology, Vietnam National University Hanoi (Dr. Pham Thi Thuy Van) and the Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biology at the University of Greifswald (Prof. Sebastian Günther). They are investigating the role of the endophytic community in the production of pharmaceutical compounds in their host plants for medicinal purposes. On the Vietnamese side, the project focuses on the endophytic bacterial community of the indigenous Ginseng plant Panax vietnamensis as a crucial component of the host plants. Growing naturally in remote mountainous regions, wild Ginseng plants are threatened by intensive exploitation. However, the adaptation of Ginseng to agricultural conditions poses various challenges, with the most prominent being the low content of valuable medicinal compounds compared to the wild habitat. The study aims to find a solution to support the growth and enhance the quality of Ginseng plants under agricultural conditions. Therefore, the endophytic community structure of the two most valuable varieties of the genus P. vietnamensis (Ngoc Linh and Lai Chau Ginseng) will be deciphered using the culture-independent metagenomic approach to ensure the capture of community structure information, along with the isolation of strains for screening activities of interest. Endophytic strains that have the capability to interact with host plants in the production of valuable pharmaceutical compounds (such as Ginsenosides and antimicrobial substances) are of particular interest. These strains will be characterized in terms of physiology and taxonomy, and then their metabolites of interest will be extracted and identified. Finally, the effects of the selected endophytic strains on improving the production of valuable pharmaceutical compounds will be examined under in vitro and in vivo conditions. The pharmaceutical aspects of the study as well as the metagenomic investigations will be conducted at the University of Greifswald.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Vietnam
• Partner Organisation: National Foundation of Science and Technology Development of Vietnam (NAFOSTED)
• Cooperation Partner: Dr. Van Pham Thi Thuy
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Christian Schulze