Marine Fungi as a Source of Secondary Metabolites of Antibiotics

Marine fungi have been shown to be tremendous sources for new and biologically active secondary metabolites which are reflected by the increasing number of published literature dealing with compounds from this group of fungi. As a result to these efforts, more than a hundred secondary metabolites from marine fungi have been described. The mycobiota of the coastal water were collected from five different localities in and around Mahabalipuram beach. The filamentous fungi were identified and assigned to eight genera. Greater populations as well as a wider spectrum range of fungal genera and species were obtained in Mahabalipuram beach while other locations were the poorest one. The genera of highest incidence and their respective numbers of species were: Cephalosporium acremonium (37.6%, 8 spp.) Penicillium (23.72%, 6 spp.) and Aspergillus (21.28%, 16 spp.). The species which showed the highest incidence in all cases was P. chrysogenum, followed by P. citrinum, A. niger, A. flavus, A.fumigatus Cephalosporium acremonium and Cladosporium sp. Several other genera and species were detected at quite low occurrence. The investigation of the secondary metabolite content of marine fungal strains of Cephalosporium acremonium and P. citrinum showed broad spectrum activities and the partial chemical structures of the compounds were identified using IR and NMR studies. Secondary metabolites isolated during this study represented different structural classes of natural product. This indicates that marine fungi have a wide range of biosynthetic capabilities for the production of novel structures.