Deciphering chemometric diversity in aerial and subterranean endophytic fungal communities of Thymus vulgaris via LC-MS/MS based untargeted metabolomics and in-silico therapeutic target prediction of marker metabolites.

Metabolic profiling reveals 269 tissue-specific metabolites, with 230 upregulated in root-associated endophytes of Thymus vulgaris, highlighting distinct chemical diversity.

• Why it matters: Understanding tissue-specific endophytic metabolites is crucial for discovering novel bioactive compounds and optimizing natural product research from medicinal plants.
• What they did: Eighteen fungal endophytes were isolated from aerial and root tissues, then analyzed using LC-MS/MS-based untargeted metabolomics, detecting over 11,000 molecular features and annotating 1164 metabolites.
• The result: Root-derived fungi showed enhanced tyrosine metabolism and terpenoid biosynthesis, with Ganoderiol C identified as a key marker that interacts with biological targets, supporting targeted strain selection for drug discovery.