Distribution of Marine Filamentous Fungi Associated with Marine Sponges in Coral Reefs of Palau and Bunaken Island, Indonesia

Abstract

Recent investigations indicate the tremendous potential of marine filamentous fungi as a source of new bioactive natural products. In the course of our study on bioactive metabolites from marine fungi, we isolated filamen- tous fungi associated with marine sponges at Palau and at Bunaken Island in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, during the voyage of the training vessel Shinyo-maru. Filamentous fungi were obtained from 82.7% and 98% of sponges at Palau and Bunaken Is., respectively. These rates were remarkably higher than those of other tropical areas. Distribution of marine filamentous fungi in the coral reef of Bunaken Is. at 6 sampling points was equally high (90-100%), while the 8 sampling points at Palau slightly varied in distribution.