Method for Isolation and Enumeration of Fungi Developing in Marine Sediments

A new design for a small growth container which was used for investigation of the microbiota of the White Sea littoral and sublittoral sediments is presented. These chambers made it possible to observe development of fungal mycelium under conditions of a natural ecotope (marine sediments) and to isolate this mycelium as pure cultures. The mycobiota isolated from the containers was compared to that obtained by standard plating method of the same sediments. The mycelium developed in 10% of the containers installed. Intensity of growth was found to be lower in the sublittoral than in the littoral. Most fungi isolated from the containers did not produce spores in pure cultures. Apart from non-sporulating cultures, colonies of marine species Paradendryphiellasalina and Acremoniumfuci were obtained. Standard plating of the sediments often resulted in isolation of Penicillium and Tolypocladium species, while the share of sterile isolates was considerably lower than in the case of isolation using growth containers.