Characterization of fungal biodiversity and communities associated with the reef macroalga Sargassum ilicifolium reveals fungal community differentiation according to geographic locality and algal structure

Abstract

Marine environments abound with opportunities to discover new species of fungi even in relatively well-studied ecosystems such as coral reefs. Here, we investigated the fungal communities associated with the canopy forming macroalga Sargassum ilicifolium(Turner) C. Argardh (1820) in Singapore. We collected eight S. ilicifolium thalli from each of eight island locations and separated them into three structures—leaves, holdfast and vesicles. Amplicon sequencing of the fungal internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) and subsequent analyses revealed weak but significant differences in fungal community composition from different structures. Fungal communities were also significantly different among sampling localities, even over relatively small spatial scales (≤ 12 km). Unsurprisingly, all structures from all localities were dominated by unclassified fungi. Our findings demonstrate the potential of marine environments to act as reservoirs of undocumented biodiversity that harbour many novel fungal taxa. These unclassified fungi highlight the need to look beyond terrestrial ecosystems in well-studied regions of the world, and to fully characterize fungal biodiversity in hotspots such as Southeast Asia for better understanding the roles they play in promoting and maintaining life on our planet.