Isolation and identification of marine fungal species from sea shore soil samples collected from cuddalore district

Marine fungi are the potential and promising sources for biologically active secondary metabolite production. Secondary metabolites are the chemical compounds that are produced during the stationary phase of the organism. Many years of study revealed that fungi are excellent sources for novel bioactive secondary metabolites. In the present study physico-chemical characteristics of sea shore soil samples were analyzed and marine fungi were isolated from the samples collected from the coastal region of Cuddalore district, Tamilnadu, India, was performed. The marine soil were selected for the following boundaries like Soil texture, Calcium Carbonate, Electrical conductivity, Power of hydrogen, Macronutrients like (Organic carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium), Micronutrients like (Iron, Manganese, Zinc, Copper) and others Caution exchange capacity, Magnesium, Sodium were studied. A total of 321 fungal colonies were isolated from sea shore soil samples. Among them, based on morphological and microscopic characteristics, nine genera of microfungi were identified namely, Fusarium (43%), Aspergillus (23%), Curvularia (10%), Penicillium (8%), Neurospora (6%), Mucor (5%), Rhizopus (2%), Sarocladium (1%), Pestalotiopsis (1%) and some unknown species.