## 7 Future Prospects  
The examination of literature in the field highlights the need to enlarge our acquisitions concerning the genetic bases enabling many endophytic fungi to synthesize bioactive metabolites common to their host plants. In fact, at the current stage of knowledge some clues lean toward an independent evolutionary development of the biosynthetic capacities, while other inferences support the exchange of genetic elements through modalities that need to be experimentally demonstrated. Aside from the general motivation to get to a rational and unequivocal elucidation of this intriguing biological phenomenon, research in the field is also pursuing applicative purposes in the aim to support industrial production of drugs and other biotechnology relevant compounds derived from plants. In this respect, new indications could derive from follow-up studies concerning some valuable phytochemicals which have been recently reported as products of endophytic strains. This is the case of asiaticoside, a triterpen saponin possessing memory enhancement properties, which is extracted from the Asiatic pennywort (_Centella asiatica_) and reported as a product of an associated endophytic strain of _C. gloeosporoides_[108], and of the myrtucommulones, displaying several notable bioactivities, which were originally extracted from myrtle (_Myrtus communis_) and later found in axenic culture of its endophyte _Neofisicocum australe_[109; 110]. In the above perspective, studies are currently in progress in our laboratories at the Wroclaw Medical University concerning tanshinones, a class of norditerpenenoid quinones originally extracted from danshen (_Salvia militorhiza_) with applicative potential in the treatment of cardiovascular and tumor diseases [111; 112]. These compounds have been also found in _Salvia yangii_ (formerly _Perovskia atriplicifolia_) [113] and _Salvia abrotanoides_ (formerly _Perovskia abrotanoides_) [114], in considerably different assortments [115]. Tanshinones have also been found as products of endophytic fungi isolated from _S. militorhiza_ and _S. abrotanoides_[8; 116; 117; 118]. Although genome sequencing of _S. militorhiza_ has been recently accomplished [119], the biosynthetic pathway of tanshinones has been only partially elucidated. Indeed, comparative genomics and transcriptomics approaches of tanshinone-producing endophytic fungi and their hosts can bring novel information and widen our knowledge about the genetic background of biosynthesis of these valuable metabolites.  
Developments in genome sequencing technologies have revolutionized genomics research concerning the endophytic microbiota. They are expected to directly contribute to drug discovery through genome mining, by increasing our capacity to identify novel compounds encoded by silent biosynthetic gene clusters. As illustrated in this paper, they could also be very effective for the discovery of gene homologues and pathway elucidation of specific bioactive products, including those originally known from the host plants.  
Conceptualization, M.B.; investigation, M.B., B.P. and R.N.; writing--original draft preparation, M.B., B.P. and R.N.; writing--review and editing, M.B. and R.N. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research received no external funding.  
Not applicable.  
The authors declare no conflict of interest.