Exploring Fungal Diversity in Seagrass Ecosystems for Pharmaceutical and Ecological Insights

Abstract

Marine ecosystems are important in discovering novel fungi with interesting metabolites that have shown great potential in pharmaceutical and biotechnological industries. Seagrasses, the sole submerged marine angiosperm, host diverse fungal taxa with mostly unknown metabolic capabilities. They are considered to be one of the least studied marine fungal habitats in the world. This review gathers and analyzes data from studies related to seagrasses-associated fungi, including taxonomy and biogeography, and highlights existing research gaps. The significance of the seagrass–fungal associations remains largely unknown, and current understanding of fungal diversity is limited to specific geographical regions such as the Tropical Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Indo-Pacific. Our survey yielded 29 culture-dependent studies on seagrass-associated endophytic and epiphytic fungi, and 13 miscellaneous studies, as well as 11 meta-studies, with no pathogenic true fungi described. There is a significant opportunity to expand existing studies and conduct multidisciplinary research into novel species and their potential applications, especially from understudied geographical locations. Future research should prioritize high-throughput sequencing and mycobiome studies, utilizing both culture-dependent and -independent approaches to effectively identify novel seagrass-associated fungal taxa.

Keywords

• biogeography
• endophytes
• epiphytes
• marine ecosystems
• pathogens
• species diversity