Marine Fungi and their Enzymes for Decolorization of Colored Effluents

Fungi play an important role in degradation and mineralization of lignocellulosic substrates in the marine environment. The importance of lignicolous fungi occurring in wood submerged in the sea was reported by Barghoorn and Linder (1944). These lignicolous fungi comprising Ascomycetes, Basidiomycetes and Deuteromycetes have distinct spore structures that set them apart from their terrestrial counterparts. Such fungi have been defined as obligate marine fungi “which grow and sporulate exclusively under marine conditions” (Kohlmeyer and Kohlmeyer 1979). In order to accommodate the possibility that terrestrial species might also be active in the sea, Kohlmeyer and Kohlmeyer (1979) offered a definition for “facultative marine fungi” as those originating from freshwater or terrestrial environment that are capable of growth and sporulation in the sea. Marine filametous fungi, obligate and facultative are known to occur in algae, corals and detritus of marine macrophytes (Kohlmeyer and Kohlmeyer, 1979).