| Summary: | The occurrence and diversity of <i>Lecanicillium</i> and <i>Sarocladium</i> in maize seeds and their role in this cereal are poorly understood. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate <i>Sarocladium</i> and <i>Lecanicillium</i> communities found in endosphere of maize seeds collected from fields in Poland and their potential to form selected bioactive substances. The sequencing of the internally transcribed spacer regions 1 (ITS 1) and 2 (ITS2) and the large-subunit (LSU, 28S) of the rRNA gene cluster resulted in the identification of 17 <i>Sarocladium zeae</i> strains<i>, </i>three <i>Sarocladium strictum</i> and five <i>Lecanicillium lecanii</i> isolates. The assay on solid substrate showed that <i>S. zeae</i> and <i>S. strictum</i> can synthesize bassianolide, vertilecanin A, vertilecanin A methyl ester, 2-decenedioic acid and 10-hydroxy-8-decenoic acid. This is also the first study revealing the ability of these two species to produce beauvericin and enniatin B1, respectively. Moreover, for the first time in the present investigation, pyrrocidine A and/or B have been annotated as metabolites of <i>S. strictum</i> and <i>L. lecanii</i>. The production of toxic, insecticidal and antibacterial compounds in cultures of <i>S. strictum, S. zeae </i>and <i>L. lecanii </i>suggests the requirement to revise the approach to study the biological role of fungi inhabiting maize seeds.
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