PHARMACEUTICAL APPLICATIONS OF MARINE-DERIVED ENZYMES

Abstract

Marine fungi can thrive at some seawater concentrations. Marine fungi have been proven to be undefinable on a physiological basis whereas a general ecological definition to name that the marine fungi of obligate types are the ones that develop and sporulate only in a marine and estuarine environment. Facultative forms are those from fresh water or terrestrial environments capable of growing in marine habitats. The initial research on marine fungi on mangroves has included taxonomy of marine fungi such as new species descriptions, fungi lists and surveys. This covers the marine fungi found in mangrove habitats. The extensive unexplored microbial diversity of soils holds promise for commercial exploration in biotechnology, in the fields of medicine, industrial processes, agriculture and bioremediation of contaminated wastes, water and land. The capacity of fungi to synthesize extracellular enzymes for decomposition of polymeric substrates like leaf litters is particularly crucial in the ecology of woodlands. Thanks to the action of a set of extracellular enzymes, fungi can break down most polymeric compounds of leaves (hemicelluloses, cellulose, starch, pectin and to some extent lignin). On the basis of leaf litter composition and water chemistry, fungal breakdown of leaf litter can last 1 to 6 months. It is somewhat otherwise with fungal breakdown of emergent macrophytes since it begins as standing shoots.