Molecular identification of isolated Malaysian marine endophytic fungi / Putri Syazwina Megat Abdul Latiff

Bioactive compounds of marine endophytic fungi derived from seaweeds have a great potential in pharmaceutical and medicinal field. In Malaysia, preliminary studies have been done to discover the bioactive compounds in these marine endophytic fungi However, the data on identification of these local marine endophytic fungi is not well reported. Therefore in this study, 18 isolated marine endophytic fungi derived from eight different species of local seaweeds ( Graci/aria arcuata zanardini, Graci/aria coronopifolia J. Agardh, Chaetomorpha minima F.S Collins & Harvey, Caulerpa sertularioides, Acantophora spicifera (M. Vohl), Padina minor Yamada, Enteromorpha compressa and Caulerpa lentifera) were identified. The isolated marine endophytic fungi were identified molecularly through polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The DNA of the marine endophytic fungi were amplified using ITS 1 and ITS 4 as primers. Out of 18 marine endophytic fungi, 11 of them were successfully identified. In this study, six marine endophytic fungi identified were from Aspergillus sp, whereas other marine endophytic fungi isolates (UF, ED2, P A2) have closest Genbank similarities with Exophiala dermatitidis, Diaporthe pseudomangiferae and Psathyrella purpureobadia respectively. Based on the result from this study, most of the isolates successfully validated the morphological characteristic from the previous research.