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Diverse Deep-Sea Fungi from the South China Sea and Their Antimicrobial Activity

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Abstract

We investigated the diversity of fungal communities in nine different deep-sea sediment samples of the South China Sea by culture-dependent methods followed by analysis of fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences. Although 14 out of 27 identified species were reported in a previous study, 13 species were isolated from sediments of deep-sea environments for the first report. Moreover, these ITS sequences of six isolates shared 84–92 % similarity with their closest matches in GenBank, which suggested that they might be novel phylotypes of genera Ajellomyces, Podosordaria, Torula, and Xylaria. The antimicrobial activities of these fungal isolates were explored using a double-layer technique. A relatively high proportion (56 %) of fungal isolates exhibited antimicrobial activity against at least one pathogenic bacterium or fungus among four marine pathogenic microbes (Micrococcus luteus, Pseudoaltermonas piscida, Aspergerillus versicolor, and A. sydowii). Out of these antimicrobial fungi, the genera Arthrinium, Aspergillus, and Penicillium exhibited antibacterial and antifungal activities, while genus Aureobasidium displayed only antibacterial activity, and genera Acremonium, Cladosporium, Geomyces, and Phaeosphaeriopsis displayed only antifungal activity. To our knowledge, this is the first report to investigate the diversity and antimicrobial activity of culturable deep-sea-derived fungi in the South China Sea. These results suggest that diverse deep-sea fungi from the South China Sea are a potential source for antibiotics’ discovery and further increase the pool of fungi available for natural bioactive product screening.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program, 2012AA092104), the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant 2010CB833803), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 41206139, 40931160435 and 40976090), the National Key Technologies R&D Program (Grant 2011BAE06B04-03), and Guangdong Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant S2011040000144) for financial support.

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  1. Key Laboratory of Marine Bio-resources Sustainable Utilization/RNAM Center for Marine Microbiology/Guangdong Key Laboratory of Marine Material Medical, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 164 West Xingang Road, Guangzhou, 510301, China

    Xiao-Yong Zhang, Yun Zhang, Xin-Ya Xu & Shu-Hua Qi

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  1. Xiao-Yong Zhang
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  2. Yun Zhang
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Correspondence to Shu-Hua Qi.

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Zhang, XY., Zhang, Y., Xu, XY. et al. Diverse Deep-Sea Fungi from the South China Sea and Their Antimicrobial Activity. Curr Microbiol 67, 525–530 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-013-0394-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-013-0394-6

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