Fungal diversity of mangrove-associated sponges from New Washington, Aklan, Philippines

Abstract

Sponge-associated fungi are the least explored marine fungal groups. It is only in recent years that fungal symbionts of marine sponges have received attention mainly due to the isolation of bioactive metabolites while not much attention was given to their specificity, biogeography and exact roles in marine sponges. The diversity of fungi associated with mangrove sponges ( Axinella sp., Halichondria cf. panicea, Haliclona sp., Tedania sp.) collected from New Washington, Aklan, Philippines were investigated using morphological observation. A total of 110 species of sponge-associated fungi belonging to 22 genera of ascomycetes with 18 genera of asexual morphs whose sexual stage is unknown, 2 genera of basidiomycetes, 21 morphospecies of Mycelia sterilia , 1 unidentified yeast species and 11 unidentified hyphomycetes were isolated from four species of mangrove sponges. This is the first study that explored the diversity and ecology of sponge-associated fungi in mangrove habitats from the Philippines. The results of the study suggest host-preference by various fungal taxa and the development of fungi on these hosts appeared to be strongly influenced by the characteristics or nature of the immediate environment.

Characterization of a Halotolerant Fungus from a Marine Sponge

“…Gradually, with the exception of those growing on CMA, the colonies developed aerial mycelium and appeared as green, brown, and black filamentous fungi. This type of incubation period dependent morphological dimorphism is not reported in studies describing fungi from marine sponges [39, 47] or other sources [30]. This form of transformation is not the same as temperature-dependent fungal dimorphism which is commonly observed in some fungal species [49].…”

“…The existence of yeast-like fungi was identified primarily by microscopic observation of the yeast form using wet mount and lacto phenol cotton blue stain preparations [36]. Further morphological identification was attained by growth on standard fungal media of malt extract agar (MEA) [37], cornmeal agar (CMA) [38], potato dextrose agar (PDA) [30, 39], and Sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA) [40]. All identification media were supplied by Oxoid.…”

Sponge-associated fungi from a mangrove habitat in Indonesia: species composition, antimicrobial activity, enzyme screening and bioactive profiling

“…4, all isolates are the member of ascomycetes that are grouped into three clades based on the phylogenetic distance. Calabon et al (2018) reported that ascomycetes are also the dominant fungal group in the mangrove-associated sponge in New Washington, Philippines. They also reported that Aspergillus spp.…”

“…In addition, Trianto et al (2017) stated that anthropogenic activity gave influence to the biological activity of the spongeassociated fungi. The latest study on sponge-associated fungi from mangrove ecosystem was performed by Calabon et al (2018). They mentioned that from 22 genera of ascomycetes from mangrove-originated sponge in Aklan, Philippines, Aspergillus was the most dominant genus with 23 isolates followed by Mycelia (n = 21 isolates) and Penicillium (n = 14 isolates).…”

Komposisi Jenis, Struktur Komunitas, dan Keanekaragaman Mangrove Asosiasi Langge Kabupaten Gorontalo Utara-Provinsi Gorontalo

“…Ekosistem mangrove memiliki vegetasi yang memberikan manfaat dan fungsi yakni mengurangi resiko abrasi (Hilmi et al, 2014), kemampuan untuk meredam gelombang pasang dan resiko tsunami (Massel et al, 1999;Hilmi et al, 2019;Kerr et al, 2006;Chang et al, 2019), habitat berbagai mikroorganisme (Elison, 2008;Calabon et al, 2019), sebagai sumber pangan (Baderan et al, 2014).…”