Isolation and Anti-infective Activity Screening of Marine Invertebrates-Associated Fungi

Filamentous fungi synthesize natural products that are often not found in other domains of life, are structurally diverse, and are biomedically important. Fungi that are associated with marine invertebrates or with algae are of growing importance as promising sources of structurally unprecedented biologically active natural products. In this study, 236 fungal isolates were purified from 14 different marine invertebrates mostly sponges and tunicates that had been collected from the Red Sea. The anti-infective activity of 25 fungal extracts against several pathogens was evaluated. Bioactivities against these pathogens for the most active 10 fungal isolates will be presented. These results show a high diversity of fungi associated with marine invertebrates as well as highlight their potential to produce anti-infective agents. Fungal strains with proven activities were identified to the species level using the Internal Transcribed Spacer ITS-rDNA sequences. Most of the active strains belong to the genera Penicillium and Aspergillus.