Ecological role and biotechnological potential of mangrove fungi: a review

Abstract

Mangroves are inhabited by large number of fungal communities, known as manglicolous fungi. They include mostly marine fungi and small group of terrestrial fungi and can be categorized into saprophytic, parasitic, and symbiotic fungi. Fungi in mangrove environment play an important ecological role in decomposition of organic matter by production of variety of extracellular degradative enzymes such as cellulase, xylanase, pectinase, amylase, and so on. Such enzymes can be isolated from the mangrove fungi and harnessed for several biotechnological applications. Several bioactive metabolites are derived from mangrove fungi, specially from mangrove endophytic fungi, which are used in pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries to produce antimicrobial, anticancer, antioxidant, antidiabetic, and other therapeutic agents. Besides, certain mangrove fungi also contribute toward production of biopesticides useful in control of plant diseases, while others produce microbial lipids used as potential feed stock for biodiesel production. In spite of immense ecological role and biotechnological potentials, mangrove fungi are not extensively studied. The present review provides information on diversity and ecological role of mangrove fungi along with their biotechnological potentials as source of novel drugs, enzymes, biodiesel, biopesticides, and many other applications.