An assessment of natural product discovery from marine (sensu strictu) and marine-derived fungi

Abstract

The natural products community has been investigating secondary metabolites from marine fungi for several decades, but when one attempts to search for validated reports of new natural products from marine fungi, one encounters a literature saturated with reports from ‘marine-derived’ fungi. Of the 1000+ metabolites that have been characterized to date, only approximately 80 of these have been isolated from species from exclusively marine lineages. These metabolites are summarized here along with the lifestyle and habitats of their producing organisms. Furthermore, we address some of the reasons for the apparent disconnect between the stated objectives of discovering new chemistry from marine organisms and the apparent neglect of the truly exceptional obligate marine fungi. We also offer suggestions on how to reinvigorate enthusiasm for marine natural products discovery from fungi from exclusive marine lineages and highlight the need for critically assessing the role of apparently terrestrial fungi in the marine environment.

Classification of marine Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Blastocladiomycota and Chytridiomycota

“…'Marine-derived fungi' include fungi of marine origin and terrestrial/freshwater taxa (facultative marine fungi) washed off from the terrestrial environment. Some of these terrestrial/freshwater fungi only appeared once in the literature of fungal natural product research, others were repeatedly cultured from the marine environment, suggesting their possible marine occurence, e.g., species in the genera Aspergillus, Penicillium and Trichoderma (Overy et al 2014). This treatise is the first comprehensive attempt to list these true marine fungi so as to distinguish them from those of terrestrial/freshwater origin.…”

“…In the last decades, research on natural products of marine fungi is on the rise and there are over 1000 metabolites described from fungi isolated from marine substrates (Overy et al 2014). These so-called 'marine-derived fungi' were mainly isolated from marine animals, macroalgae, mangrove plants and sediments and are taxonomically diverse (Ebel 2012;Debbab et al 2012).…”

Biochemical fingerprints of marine fungi: implications for trophic and biogeochemical studies

“…In terrestrial environments, fungi contribute some 35 to 76% of the microbial biomass present within soils (Joergensen & Wichern 2008) and their pivotal role in nutrient and carbon cycling is widely recognized (Gadd 2006, Crowther et al 2012, Overy et al 2014. Although marine fungi are less intensively studied than their terrestrial counterparts, recent research has demonstrated that fungi are present in a wide a variety of marine environments and has unraveled novel aspects of their ecology and bio-ABSTRACT: Fungi are ubiquitous in the marine environment, but their role in carbon and nitrogen cycling in the ocean, and in particular the quantitative significance of fungal biomass to ocean biogeochemistry, has not yet been assessed.…”

A study on biological activity of marine fungi from different habitats in coastal regions

“…Diversity of fungi has been studied from various habitats including seawater, coastal waters, deep-sea sediments, hypersaline waters, mangroves, salt marshes, and hydrothermal vents (Overy et al 2014). As is known to all, the coastal region is a dynamic, self-sustained system with biodiversity, meanwhile different marine fungi produced various metabolites which have wide applications in pharmaceutics (Gerwick and Fenner 2013).…”