Marine Fungi

Abstract

Marine fungi are an ecological, not a taxonomic, grouping, known primarily as saprotrophs from intertidal zones where they represent an important food source for invertebrates. These osmotrophs also play important roles as mutualists and pathogens in marine systems, and provide a wealth of antimicrobial and bioactive compounds. Currently, our knowledge of marine fungal diversity, biology and ecology comes mainly from intertidal zones such as sand beaches, saltmarshes and mangroves. However, fungi are also present in the water column and at depth, where many discoveries await. With modern molecular techniques and many marine habitats unexplored for fungi, this growing field is poised to make important contributions to our knowledge of the ecological and biogeochemical functions of the oceans. Critical to this is identifying keystone fungal players, their ecological significance, and distribution patterns. Key Concepts Marine fungi are an ecological, not a taxonomic assemblage. Although intertidal saprotrophs are the most studied, fungi exist and are understudied in many marine habitats, including the water column and deep sea. Many novel compounds have been isolated from marine fungi. Mycologists must participate in conservation planning to protect the future of marine fungal biodiversity. Marine fungi are understudied and it is estimated many new species await discovery.

Diversity, Abundance, and Ecological Roles of Planktonic Fungi in Marine Environments

“…Thereafter, marine fungi have been defined either as those recovered repeatedly from marine habitats [ 7 ] or individuals with a long-term presence and metabolic activities in a marine habitat [ 8 ]. The former, currently the most complete definition, combines both genetic and functional aspects without relying on taxonomy [ 9 ]. Contrastingly, the later definition in an omics context seems user-friendly and simple and might be useful for revealing specific markers of fungal adaptation to marine environments.…”

“…Furthermore, fungi isolated from marine or marine-related habitats are producers of several bioactive compounds [ 7 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ], which can open up a new era of drug research. Nevertheless, marine fungi remain one of the most under-studied microbial groups, with 95% of the ocean remaining mycologically unexplored [ 9 ]. Consequently, the abundance, diversity, ecological roles, and interactions of marine fungi with other plankton remain mostly speculative and our current understanding of marine fungi, particularly planktonic fungi, remains diffuse.…”

The Potential Role of Marine Fungi in Plastic Degradation – A Review

“…They can be found as free-living organisms, in mutualistic symbiotic associations (such as those forming mycorrhizas, lichens, in gut microbiomes) (Watkinson, 2016) or as parasitic pathogens of several plants and animals, including humans (Szabo and Bushnell, 2001). Fungi are ubiquitous and occur throughout terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments (Sutherland, 1916;Raghukumar, 2017;Walker et al, 2017; Zoopagomycota (Wijayawardene et al, 2020). However, the phylogeny and taxonomy of the fungal kingdom has been a matter of debate (Hibbett et al, 2007;Spatafora et al, 2016Spatafora et al, , 2017.…”

Predicting global numbers of teleomorphic ascomycetes

“…However, 91% of species in the ocean await description and increasing the sampling intensity is required to characterize the underexplored species of marine biodiversity (Walker and Robicheau 2021). It is estimated that more than 10,000 marine fungal species exist globally (Jones 2011;Walker et al 2017) and only around 1000 have been described (Jones et al 2015;Pang et al 2016). Jones et al (2019) listed 1257 marine species belonging to 539 genera and 943 of them are ascomycetes (Jones et al 2009(Jones et al , 2015Abdel-Wahab et al 2010;Pang et al 2010;Abdel-Wahab and Nagahama 2011;Dayarathne et al 2016Dayarathne et al , 2019.…”