Diversity and bioactivity of fungi associated with the marine sea cucumber Holothuria poli: disclosing the strains potential for biomedical applications
Marchese, Pietro Garzolib, Laura Gnavib, Giorgio O’Connell, Enda Bouraouid, Abderrahman Mehirie, Mohamed Murphy, Mary Varese, Giovanna Cristina
Marchese, Pietro
Garzolib, Laura
Gnavib, Giorgio
O’Connell, Enda
Bouraouid, Abderrahman
Mehirie, Mohamed
Murphy, Mary
Varese, Giovanna Cristina
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Publication Date
2020-04-10
Type
Article
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Citation
Marchese, Pietro, Garzolib, Laura, Gnavib, Giorgio, O’Connell, Enda, Bouraouid, Abderrahman, Mehirie, Mohamed, Murphy, Mary, Varese, Giovanna Cristina. (2020). Diversity and bioactivity of fungi associated with the marine sea cucumber Holothuria poli: disclosing the strains potential for biomedical applications. Journal of Applied Microbiology. doi:10.1111/jam.14659
Abstract
Aims: Identification of the mycobiota associated to the marine echinoderm Holothuria poli and investigation of cytotoxic and pro-osteogenic potential of isolated strains. Methods and results: Fungal strains were isolated from the animal s body- wall, intestine and faeces. The species identification was based on DNA barcoding and morphophysiological observations. Forty-seven species were identified, all are Ascomycota and mainly belonging to Aspergillus and Penicillium genera. Sixteen strains were grown on three media for chemical extraction. Cytotoxic activity was tested on a hepatic cancer cell line (HepG2), the cells viability was evaluated after treatment using a resazurin based assay (AlamarBlue). Pro-osteogenic activity was tested on human Mesenchymal stem cell, differentiation was measured as the alkaline phosphatase production through reaction with p-nitrophenylphosphate or as the cells ability to mineralize calcium using a colorimetric kit (StanBio). Cytotoxic activity was recorded for four fungal species while five of 48 extracts highlighted bioactivity towards human mesenchymal stem cells. Conclusions: The presence of relevant animal-associated mycobiota was observed in H. poli and selected strains showed cytotoxic potential and pro- osteogenic activity. Significance and Impact of the Study: Our work represents the first report of a Mediterranean Sea cucumber mycobiota and highlights the isolates potential to synthetize compounds of pharmaceutical interest for regenerative medicine.
Publisher
Society for Applied Microbiology (SfAM)
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland