Isolation and molecular identification of Ascomycetes in sediments and waters of the Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea

Basem M. Jaber, Rola Al-Silawi, Tariq Al-Najjar

Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.
Department of Marine Biology, Faculty of Marine Sciences, The University of Jordan/Aqaba Branch, Aqaba, Jordan.

DOI: 10.4236/ns.2012.48074                

Abstract

Using molecular approach, we aimed to identify fungal phylotypes that exist in the Gulf of Aqaba, Red sea. Several samples were taken from sediments and seawater of three locations along 26 kilometers at 5 m depth. 18S small subunit rRNA gene was targeted for PCR amplification and sequencing. Partial sequences introduced as query in BLASTN phylogenetic analysis revealed 100% identity with Ascomycota, namely, Aspergillus sp. Penicillium sp. and its closely related Eupenicillium sp. The top scorer species in this analysis were Aspergillus sydowii, Aspergillus wentii, Aspergillus flocculosus, Penicillium expansum and Eupenicillium javanicum with 98% - 100% identity. Phylogenetic analyses demonstrates close relatedness among isolated fungi and potential association with Ascomycetes. This study reports a new geographical location in which facultative marine Ascomycetes exist in, and sheds some light on fungal diversity in Gulf of Aqaba.

Keywords

Marine Fungi; Ascomycete; 18S ssu rRNA; Gulf of Aqaba; Red Sea

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Kis-Papo, T., Oren, A. and Nevo, E. (2003) Survival of fila-mentous fungi in hypersaline Dead Sea water. Microbial Ecology, 45, 183-190. doi:10.1007/s00248-002-3006-8
[2]	Lovejoy, C., Massana, R. and Pedros-Alio, C. (2006) Diversity and distribution of marine microbial eukaryotes in the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas. Applied Microbiology and Microbiology, 72, 3085-3095.
[3]	Gao, Z., Binglin, L., Zheng, C. and Wang, G. (2008) Molecular detection of fungal communities in the howian marine sponges Suberites seteki and Mycale armata. Applied Environmental and Microbiology, 74, 6091-6101. doi:10.1128/AEM.01315-08
[4]	Burgaud, G., Le Calves, T., Arzur, D., Vandenkoornhuyse, P. and Barbier, G. (2009) Diversity of culturlable marine filamentous fungi from deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Environmental Microbiology, 11, 1588-1600. doi:10.1111/j.1462-2920.2009.01886.x
[5]	Nagano, Y and Nagahama, T. (2012) Fungal diversity in deep-sea extreme environments. Fungal Ecology, 5, 463- 471. doi:10.1016/j.funeco.2012.01.004
[6]	Hawksworth, D.L. (1991) The fungal dimension of biodiversity: Magnitude, significance, and conservation, Mycological Research, 95, 641-655. doi:10.1016/S0953-7562(09)80810-1
[7]	Hawksworth, D.L. (2001) The magnitude of fungal diversity: The 1.5 million species estimated revisited. Mycological Research, 105, 1422-1432. doi:10.1017/S0953756201004725
[8]	Blackwell, M. (2011) The fungi: 1,2,3…5.1 million species. American Journal of Botany, 98, 426-438. doi:10.3732/ajb.1000298
[9]	Kohlmeyer, J. and Kohlmeyer, E. (1979) Marine mycology—The higher fungi. Academic Press, New York.
[10]	Hyde, K.D., Jones, E.B.G., Leano, E., Pointing, S.B., Poonyth, A.D. and Vrigmoed, L.P. (1989) Role of fungi in marine ecosystems. Biodiversity and Conservation, 7, 1147-1161. doi:10.1023/A:1008823515157
[11]	Barata, M. (2006) Marine fungi from Mira river salt marsh in Portugal. Revista Iberoamerican de Micologia, 23, 179-184. doi:10.1016/S1130-1406(06)70040-7
[12]	Zuluaga-Montero, A., Rameriz-Cameho, L., Rauscher, J. and Bayman, P. (2010) Marine isolates o Aspergillus fumigatus: Denzins of the deep or lost at sea? Fungal Ecology, 3, 386-391. doi:10.1016/j.funeco.2010.05.003
[13]	Zuluaga-Montero, A., Toledo-Hernandez, C., Rodriguez J.A., Sabat, M. and Bayman, P. (2010) Spatial variation in fungal communities isolated from healthy and diseased sea fans Gorgonia ventalina and seawater. Aquatic Biology, 8, 151-160. doi:10.3354/ab00218
[14]	Bourne, D.G., Garren, M., Work, T.M., Rosenburg, E., Smith, G.W. and Harvell, C.D. (2009) Microbial disease and the coral holobiont. Tends in Microbiology, 17, 554-562. doi:10.1016/j.tim.2009.09.004
[15]	Kales, S.K., De Witte-Orr, S.J., Bols, N.C. and Dixon, B. (2007) Response of rainbow trout monocyte/macrophage cell line, RTS11 to the water molds Achyla and Saprolegnia. Molecular Immunology, 44, 2303-2314. doi:10.1016/j.molimm.2006.11.007
[16]	Basheer, S.M., Chellappan, S., Beena, P.S., Sukumaran, R.K., Elyas, K.K. and Chandrasekaran, M. (2011) Lipase from marine Aspergilus awamori BTMFW032; Production, partial purification and application in oil effluent treatment. New Biotechnology, 28, 627-638. doi:10.1016/j.nbt.2011.04.007
[17]	Passarini, M.R.Z., Rodrigues, M.V.N., daSilva, M. and Sette, L.D. (2011) Marine-derived filamentous fungi and their potential application for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons bioremediation. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 62, 364-370. doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2010.10.003
[18]	Rocha, L.C. Ferreira, H.V., Luiz, R.F., Sette, L.D. and Porto, A.L.M. (2011) Sero-selctive bioreduction of 1-(4- Methoxypheyl) ethanone by whole cells marine-derived fungi. Marine Biotechnology, In Press.
[19]	Wang, F., Fang, Y., Zhang, M., Lin, A, Zhu, T., Gu, Q. and Zhu, W. (2008) Six new ergosterol from marine- derived fungus Rhizopus sp. Steroids, 73, 19-26. doi:10.1016/j.steroids.2007.08.008
[20]	Wu, Q.X., Jin, X.J., Draskovic, M., Crews, M.S., Tenney, K., Valeriote, F.A., Yao, X.J. and Crews, P. (2012) Unraveling the numerous biosynthetic products of the marine sediment-derived fungus, Aspergillus insulicola. Phytochemistry Letters, 5, 114-117. doi:10.1016/j.phytol.2011.11.005
[21]	Chen, L., Zhu, T., Ding, Y., Khan, I.A., Gu, Q., Li, D. and Sorbiterrin, A. (2012) A novel sorbicillin derivative with cholinesterase inhibition activity from the marine-derived fungus Penicillium terrestre. Tetrahedron Letters, 53, 325-328. doi:10.1016/j.tetlet.2011.11.038
[22]	Shi, Z., Bai, S., Tian, L., Jiang, H. and Zhang, J. (2011) Molecular detection of Penicillium griseofulvum as the coastal pollution indicator. Current Microbiology, 62, 396-401. doi:10.1007/s00284-010-9720-4
[23]	El-Sharouny, H.M., Ra-heem, A.M. and Abdel-Wahab, M.A. (1998) Manglicolous fungi of the red sea in upper Egypt. Microbiological Research, 153, 81-96. doi:10.1016/S0944-5013(98)80025-6
[24]	Hulings, N.C. (1989) A review of the marine science research in the Gulf of Aqaba, Marine Science Station, Aqaba-Jordan.
[25]	Loeffler, J., Henke, N., Hebart, H., Schmidt, D., Hagmeyer, L., Schumacher, U. and Einsele, H. (2000) Quantification of fungal DNA by using fluorescence resonance energy transfer and light cycler system. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 38, 586-590.
[26]	Dereeper, A., Guignon, V., Blanc, G., Audic, S., Buffet, S., Chevenet, F., Dufayard, J.F., Guindon, S., Lefort, V., Lescot, M., Claverie, J.M. and Gascuel, O. (2008) Phylogeny.fr: Robust phylogenetic analysis for the nonspecialist. Nucleic Acid Research, 36, W465-469. doi:10.1093/nar/gkn180
[27]	Schocha, C.L., Seifert, K.A, Huhndorf, S., Robert, V., Spougea, J.L., Levesque, C.A., Chen, W. and Consortiuma, F.B. (2012) Nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region as a universal DNA barcode marker for Fungi. Proceedings of National Academy of Science, 109, 6241-6246. doi:10.1073/pnas.1117018109
[28]	Geiser, D.M., Gueidan, C., Miadlikowska, J., Lutzoni, F., Kauff, F., Hofstetter, V., Fraker, E., Schoch, C.L., Tibell, L., Untereiner, W.A. and Aptroot, A. (2006) Eurotiomycetes: Eurotiomycetidae and Chaetothyriomycetidae. Mycologia, 98, 1053-1064. doi:10.3852/mycologia.98.6.1053
[29]	Wu, Z., Tsumura, Y., Blomquist, G. and Wang, X. (2003) 18S rRNA gene variation among common airborne fungi, and development of specific oligonucleotide probes for the detection of fungal isolate. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 69, 5389-5397. doi:10.1128/AEM.69.9.5389-5397.2003
[30]	Chenuil, A. (2006) Choosing the right molecular genetic markers for studying biodiversity: From molecular evolution to practical aspects. Genetica, 1, 101-120.
[31]	Nambiar, G.R. and Raveendran, K. (2008) A checklist of marine fungi from Kerala state, India. American-Eurasian Journal of Botany, 3, 73-77.
[32]	Bhadury, B., Bik, H., Lambshead, J.D., Austen, C.M., Smerdon, G.R. and Rogers, A.D. (2011) Molecular diversity of fungal phylotypes co-amplified alongside nematodes from coastal and deep-sea marine environments. PLoS One, 6, e26445. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0026445
[33]	Raghukumar, C., Raghukumar, S., Sheelu, G., Gupta, S.M., Nath, B.N. and Rao, B.R. (2004) Buried in time: Culturable fungi in a deep-sea sediment core from the chagos Trench, Indian Ocean. Deep-Sea Research I, 51, 1759-1768.
[34]	Takishita, K., Yubuki, N., Kakizoe, N., Inagaki, Y. and Maruyama, T. (2007) Diversity of microbial eukaryotes in sediment at a deep-sea methane cold seep: Surveys of ribosomal DNA libraries from raw sediment samples and two enrichment cultures. Extremophiles, 4, 563-576. doi:10.1007/s00792-007-0068-z