Microbial diversity associated with algae, ascidians and sponges from the north coast of São Paulo state, Brazil

Abstract

Little is known about the microbial diversity associated with marine macroorganisms, despite the vital role microorganisms may play in marine ecosystems. The aim of the present study was to investigate the diversity of bacteria and fungi isolated from eight marine invertebrate and one algae samples. Data derived from ARDRA and sequencing analyses allowed the identification of marine-derived microorganisms isolated from those samples. Microbial strains identified up to the genus level revealed 144 distinct ribotypes out of 256 fungal strains and 158 distinct ribotypes out of 181 bacterial strains. Filamentous fungi were distributed among 24 different genera belonging to Ascomycota, Zygomycota and Basidiomycota, some of which had never been reported in the literature as marine invertebrate-inhabiting fungi (Pestalotiopsis, Xylaria, Botrysphaeria and Cunnninghamella). Bacterial isolates were affiliated to 41 different genera, being Bacillus, Ruegeria, Micrococcus, Pseudovibrio and Staphylococcus the most abundant ones. Results revealed an unexpected high microbial diversity associated to the macroorganisms which have been collected and suggested the selection of certain microbial taxonomic groups according to the host. The combined data gathered from this investigation contribute to broaden the knowledge of microbial diversity associated to marine macroorganisms, including as a promising source for the discovery of new natural products.

Microbial diversity of biofilm communities in microniches associated with the didemnid ascidian Lissoclinum patella

“…In comparison, marine planktonic habitats exhibited H indices ranging from 4.4 to 5.4 (Schloss et al, 2009), whereas temperate coastal microbial mats were found to be slightly more diverse (H: 5.9 ± 0.4; Bolhuis and Stal, 2011). Menezes et al (2010) did not calculate H indices but still found the bacterial community associated with the didemnid ascidian D. ligulum (which is not known to contain Prochloron) to be the most diverse of all eight invertebrate species sampled.…”

“…Cyanobacteria were found to be common among epibiotic phototrophs covering the Mediterranean ascidian C. dellechiajei (Martínez -García et al, 2011) and within the tunic of Caribbean didemnid ascidians (López-Legentil et al, 2011) but were completely absent in three species of ascidians sampled on the eastern US coast (Tait et al, 2007) and two ascidian species from the north coast of Brazil (Menezes et al, 2010). Bacteria sampled from the tunic tissue and the surfaces of various ascidians revealed sequences belonging to Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes (Martínez-García et al, 2009;Menezes et al, 2010), as well as Alphaproteobacteria (Tait et al, 2007), thus closely resembling some of the recovered phyla from L. patella.…”

“…In recent years, the microbial diversity associated with sponges and other marine invertebrates has been under intense investigation, in part due to a prevalence of bioactive compounds in such organisms, with potential use in applied sciences (Taylor et al, 2007Menezes et al, 2010;Thomas et al, 2010;Webster and Taylor, 2011). In addition to marine sponges, didemnid ascidians present an interesting environment for the investigation of symbiotic relationships (Adams, 2002;Hirose and Maruyama, 2004) and the discovery of new bioactive compounds (Sings and Rinehart, 1996;Ogi et al, 2009;Erwin et al, 2010).…”

First Record of Fungi and Actinobacteria Isolated from the Marine Sediment Collected in the Intertidal Region from an Island Located in the South of Brazil

“…Thus, the correspondence analysis revealed that seawater samples in different areas were affected by environmental parameters (Dong et al, 2014). Additionally, marinederived filamentous fungi and bacteria represent a promising source of microbial genetic resource to be biotechnologically explored (Menezes et al, 2010;Pang et al, 2016).…”

Studies on Soil Mycoflora in Coastal Area of Tuticorin Dt., Tamilnadu, India

“…A great diversity of fungi has been reported from along coastlines, such as mangrove, sand, beach and estuarine habitats (Morrison-Gardiner, 2002;Menezes et al, 2010;Behera et al, 2012). Marine fungi are classified into obligate and facultative forms: obligate marine fungi are those that grow and sporulate exclusively in a marine or estuarine habitat, and facultative marine fungi are those that also occur in freshwater or terrestrial milieus yet are able to grow in, and frequently are isolated from marine habitats (Kohlmeyer and Kohlmeyer, 1979).…”