Exploration of marine sponges-associated fungi producing antifungal compounds

Abstract

The morbidity of diseases caused by fungi is still considered high in Indonesia due to the hot and humid climate that suitable for the fungi growth. The unwise treatment for the diseases using antimicrobial caused a new problem of the development of the resistant strain. A vast distribution of multi-drug resistant pathogens urged to discover new antifungal compounds. The purpose of this study is to obtain the marine sponge-associated fungi that produce antifungal substances. A total 67 sponges specimens were collected from four different areas in Indonesian water. The antagonistic test was conducted against Malassezia furfur, Trichophyton sp, and Candida albicans using cross streak method for screening the active isolates.The sponge-isolates ratio from Lampung Bay, Seribu Islands, Karimunjawa Islands and Wakatobi Island were 106%, 90%, 210%, and 115%, respectively. The sponge collected from Wakatobi Islands has the highest number of the active isolates against the M. furfur, Trichophyton sp, and C. albicans. The extract one of the isolated fungus showed activity against all of the pathogenic fungi at the concentration as low as 100 μg/disc.