Aspergillus species isolated from mangrove forests in Borneo Island,
Sarawak, Malaysia
JayaSeelan Sathiya Seelan 1, A.A.K. Faisal Ali 2 & Sepiah Muid 3
1 Institute
for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Locked Bag 2073, UniversitiMalaysia Sabah, 88999 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
2 Department
of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas 79409-3131, USA
3 Department
of Plant Science and Environmental Ecology, Faculty of Resource Science and
Technology, 94300 Kota Samarahan, UniversitiMalaysia Sarawak, Malaysia
Email: avinash80us@yahoo.com 1
Date of
online publication 26 June 2009
ISSN
0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print)
Editor: V.B. Hosagoudar
Manuscript
details:
Ms #
o2192
Received
30 April 2009
Final
received 03 June 2009
Finally
accepted 17 June 2009
Citation: Seelan, J.S.S., A.K.K.F. Ali & S. Muid (2009). Aspergillusspecies isolated from mangrove forests in Borneo Island, Sarawak, Malaysia. Journal
of Threatened Taxa 1(6): 344-346.
Copyright: © Jaya Seelan Sathiya Seelan, A.K.K. Faisal Ali & Sepiah Muid 2009. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows
unrestricted use of this article in any medium for non-profit purposes,
reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and
the source of publication.
Acknowledgements: Authors thank UniversitiMalaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) for permission and MOSTI for financial support. They
are grateful to Prof. Maren Klichof the United States Agricultural Department (USDA) for confirmation of
identification.
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The occurrence of Aspergillus is worldwide
but mainly in tropical and subtropical regions (Domschet al. 1980; Christensen & Tuthill 1985). Aspergillus spp. areisolated from soil, sea water, plant debris, compost and litter (Raper & Fennell 1965). Aspergillusspp. are able to develop into many new strains through
the process of heterokaryosis or parasexualreproduction and result high diversity in the environment. (Raper & Fennell, 1977; Papagianni2004). This study aims to project the diversity of Aspergillusspp. on mangrove soil and leaf litters of four mangrove locations in Sarawak.
Materials and Methods
Sample collection and
fungal isolation: Mangrove
soil and 100-200 g of dried leaf litters were collected at random from four
locations, i.e. Sematan, Lundu,Kampung Bako, Bako in the Borneo Island of
Sarawak. Soil samples were pretreated
following Warcup (1950). Five replicates were made for different soil
samples and incubated at 28°C for seven days. Dried leaf litter samples were sliced into 1cm pieces, directly plated onto Malt Extract Agar (MEA)
and then incubated at 28°C for seven days.
Identification: For
identification, the fungi isolates were grown on five different media such as Czapek Yeast Extract Agar incubated at 25°C (CYA25), CYA37
(incubated at 37°C), CY20S (added with 20% sucrose incubated at 25°C), Malt
Extract Agar (MEA) and Czapek Doxsolution agar (CZ) (incubated at 25°C). For each culture, five plates were used in triplicates. Each plate was inoculated at three points,
equidistant from the center and incubated in the dark for seven days. The
strains were identified using current universal keys of identification (Raper & Fennell 1977; Pitt 1979; Domschet al. 1980; Klich 2002). Notes of IMI description were also used for
identification.
Microscopic
Observation
A small tuft of
mycelium and conidiophores were lifted from a fairly young portion of the
colony, placed in a drop of alcohol on a glass slide and gently teased
out. A drop of lactophenolblue or acid fuchsin was used to stain. The appearance of foot cell, conidiophores,
presence of metulae (sterigmata)
and conidia were observed. Digital
photographs were taken by a Nikon camera attached to LeicaMicroscope.
Result and Discussion
Fungal
Isolation: A total of 138 isolates belonging to five species of Aspergillus were isolated from the mangrove soil and
leaf litter samples, collected from different sampling sites in four mangrove
forests in Sarawak. Based on both
macroscopic and microscopic observations, using an identification key,
individual isolates were classified within the genus Aspergillus,
belonging to three subgenera, four section and five species. The fungal
isolates were identified as A. terreus Thom, A.flavipes Bainier and Sartory, A. carneus Blochwitz, A. fumigatus Fresenius
and A. clavatus Desmazieres. The most frequently isolated species was A.flavipes (63.04%), followed by A. fumigatus (16.7%), A. terreus(13.04%), A. carneus (5.8%) and A. clavatus (1.44%). The total isolates of Aspergillus from
mangrove soil and leaf litters in Sarawak shown in Figure 1.
Morphological
Characteristics
All the five isolates
showed significant growth rate level (P<0.05) on the media tested as in
Table 1. All the five species isolated
were varying intexture, vesicle shape, pigment production and sporulation(Images 1-5).
Klich (2002) reported nearly 200
species of Aspergillus primarily from India,
Europe, Egypt, Syria, tropical Africa, Japan and North America. Since there is no record for Borneo Island,
this work has documented five different species of Aspergillusfrom the mangrove soils and leaf litters. From this preliminary observation, A.fumigatus Fresenius, A. flavipes Bainier and Sartory, A.carneus Blochwitz and A.clavatus Desmazieres,
were morphologically more variable in conidial ornamentation, phialide shapes and pigmentation than described by Raper & Fennell (1965). In this study, A. clavatus was
found interesting because of its yellow pigment and long
conidiophores ranging from 3-5 cm on the leaf litters found in Kampung Bako while the other
isolate of A. clavatus from Sematan, had short conidiophores ranging from 2.5-3.5 cm.
Besides that, A. carneus showed reddish sclerotia on MEA at room temperature. This is an important character of this
species.
Conclusion
In conclusion, five
species of Aspergillus were obtained i.e. A. fumigatus Fresenius, A. flavipes Bainier and Sartory, A. carneus Blochwitz and A. clavatus Desmazieres are reported from mangrove soil and leaf
litters at Kampung Bako, Bako, Lundu and Sematan, Sarawak. Morphological characteristics of these five species were distinct. Colony growth characteristics were media
dependent and were different for each species
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