Fungi in the sea fan Gorgonia ventalina:: diversity and sampling strategies

Fungal communities from gorgonians have been poorly documented and most studies of these communities have lacked defined sampling strategies. The objectives of this study were: (1) to estimate fungal diversity in Gorgonia ventalina; (2) to compare two sampling and tissue processing strategies: tissue fragments of different sizes vs. homogenized tissue. A total of seven genera and fourteen species of fungi were isolated on culture medium and identified by sequencing the nrITS. All but one species were new reports. In both treatments Aspergillus and Penicillium were the most common genera isolated. Most species isolated from fragments were not observed from homogenized tissue and vice versa. Reducing the size fragment increased significantly the number of species isolated per fragment. To better estimate fungal diversity in sea fans a strategy is proposed that combines sampling of small tissue fragments with homogenized tissue, since each technique yielded fungal species not detected by the other.