Diversity of sponge-associated fungi from a mangrove forest in Kemujan Island, Karimunjawa National Park, Indonesia

Abstract

Plenty of studies have reported interesting biological properties and bioactive compounds from sponge-associated fungi in Indonesia. However, only a few studies consider their biodiversity. Most of the studies collected the sponge from the coral reef ecosystem and barely reported from the mangrove ecosystem. This study aimed to discover the biodiversity of sponge-associated fungi from a mangrove ecosystem using a DNA barcoding approach. Five mangrove-associated sponges were collected from a tidal mangrove forest in Kemujan Island, Karimunjawa National Park, Indonesia. In total, we isolated 56 sponge-associated fungi, which consisted of seven genera in the phylum Ascomycota (77.78%), one genus in the phylum Basidiomycota (11.11%), and one genus in the phylum Mucoromycota (11.11%). Trichoderma (n: 15, 26.79%), Aspergillus (n: 13, 23.21%) and Fusarium (n: 12, 21.45%) were the top three dominant genera. In addition, based on the association of fungi to its sponge hosts, Aspergillus, Aureobasidium, Fusarium, and Trichoderma are sponge-generalists; Absidia and Pestalotiopsis are sponge-associates; while Lasiodiplodia, Montagnula, and Wallemia are sponge-specialist.