Fungal biodiversity in the Mediterranean Sea, state of the art and future perspectives

The Mediterranean Sea is a well-recognised hotspot of biodiversity: not only it is home to flora and fauna, but it is also a treasure trove of precious microorganisms. As in any other environment, biotic and abiotic substrates can be colonised by pathogenic, symbiotic or saprotrophic fungi that constitute a huge part of microbial biodiversity representing a major component in aquatic food webs and supporting many ecosystem services. In recent years, the Mycotheca Universitatis Taurinensis (MUT) developed and realized several research projects with the aim of uncovering the marine fungal biodiversity, investigating the ecological role of marine fungi, discovering and preserving novel taxa suitable for biotechnological exploitation. Within these studies, a high number of fungal strains from different marine substrates were isolated, identified and preserved. Some of these fungi are representative of taxa that had never been described before, while many others have been detected in the Mediterranean Sea for the first time. In the future, it is desirable to adopt more intense, regular and accurate sampling campaigns, based on more efficient culturomic and metagenomic techniques. Indeed, due to intense human activity, uncontrolled urbanization, pollution and climate change, the Mediterranean Sea is facing a deterioration of habitats with a consequent decrease in the number of species. Hence the importance of studying these microorganisms that can contribute to the conservation of the entire ecosystem.