Investigation on diversity of culturable fungi mainly focused on sponges and corals, yet little attention had been paid to the fungal communities associated with zoanthid corals. In this study, a total of 193 culturable fungal strains were isolated from the zoanthid Palythoa haddoni collected in the South China Sea, of which 49 independent isolates were identified using both morphological characteristics and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequence analyses. Thirty-five strains were selected for phylogenetic analysis based on fungal ITS sequences. The results indicated that 18 genera within eight taxonomic orders of two phyla (seven orders of the phylum Ascomycota and one order of the phylum Basidiomycota) together with one unidentified fungal strain have been achieved, and Cladosporium sp. represented the dominant culturable genus. Particularly, 14 genera were isolated from a zoanthid for the first time. The antibacterial activities of organic extracts of mycelia and fermentation broth of 49 identified fungi were evaluated, and 29 (59.2 %) of the isolates displayed broad-spectrum or selective antibacterial activity. More interestingly, more than 60 % of the active fungal strains showed strong activity against two aquatic pathogenic bacteria Nocardia brasiliensis and Vibrio parahaemolyticus, compared with other pathogenic bacteria, indicating that zoanthid-derived fungi may protect its host against pathogens. This is the first report of systematically phylogenetic diversity and extensively antibacterial activity of zoanthid-derived fungi.

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