Lower marine fungi (labyrinthulomycetes) and the decay of mangrove leaf litter

Abstract

This paper deals with the association of members of the Labyrinthulomycetes (Thraustochytriales and Labyrinthulales) with decaying or decayed leaves at an intertidal mangrove at Morib, Malaysia. Representatives of both orders of these obligately marine unicellular eukaryotes of unresolved taxonomic affinities (Chamberlain & Moss, 1998) were consistently isolated from leaves at all stages of decay from the recently fallen to those in an advanced stage of decay, but not from either green or senescent yellow leaves attached to trees. Baiting experiments using γ-irradiated leaf discs of Sonneratia and Rhizophora spp. immersed in the aquatic environment of the mangrove, revealed that leaf material was colonised by both labyrinthulids and thraustochytrids within 24 hours of immersion at the test site and these organisms were isolated from the leaf material throughout the 14 day study period. In vitro experiments using axenic cultures of three thraustochytrid genera inoculated onto sterile discs of Sonneratia leaves and incubated for 14 days caused loss of both biomass and structural integrity of the leaf material. Freeze fracture, followed by scanning electron microscopy of leaves inoculated with a thraustochytrid and a strain of Labyrinthula, revealed that penetration of the leaf occured after 4 days and that the thraustochytrid was associated with localised degradation of internal leaf tissues. Cellulase production by an isolate of Schizochytrium aggregatum was detected. The results of all the above investigations are discussed with reference to the role of members of the Labyrinthulomycetes in nutrient cycling in the mangrove.