Efficiency of uronic acid uptake in marine alginate-degrading fungi

Despite the fact that many marine fungi, including phycomycetes, yeasts, ascomycetes and hyphomycetes, have been recorded from living and/or dead phaeophytes, only a few of these have been shown to be capable of degrading alginic acid or alginates. The degradation is achieved by the action of an exoenzyme complex, comprising alginate lyase, as well as alginate hydrolase activities. The latter was detected only recently by the authors. In this study, the growth of two marine sodiumalginate-degrading deuteromycetes,Asteromyces cruciatus andDendryphiella salina, was investigated, and the assimilation efficiency of sodiumalginate and its uronic acid degradation products, respectively, was estimated from the economic coefficient (E). E is calculated from the mycelial dry weight, divided by the weight of substrate consumed for this production. The economic coefficient forA. cruciatus was 48.6%, and that ofD. salina 38.9%. This indicates that the former species uses the alginate degradation products more efficiently than the latter. The observed E-values for the marine deuteromycetes agree with those from other fungi, e.g. terrestrial species. In general, it is concluded that the marine fungi appear to play a more important role in kelp-based ecosystems than was realized previously.