Pathogenicity of Fungi Colonizing Some Hard Corals and Invertebrates from the Northern Egyptian Red Sea Coast

E. M., El-Morsy,; H. A. H, Ibrahim,; Farhat, Amal Zaki; M. T., Mohsien,; M, Abu El-Regal,

doi:10.21608/ejabf.2017.3532

Pathogenicity of Fungi Colonizing Some Hard Corals and Invertebrates from the Northern Egyptian Red Sea Coast

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Damietta University, Egypt

² Natinoal Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Alexandria Branch, Alexandria, Egypt

³ Marine Science Department, Faculty of Science, Port Said University, Port said, Egypt

10.21608/ejabf.2017.3532

Abstract

Fungi colonizing hard coral species collected from Hurghada, Red Sea were isolated and identified to the species
level. A total of 47 fungal isolates (37 isolates from hard corals and 10 isolates from other invertebrates) were collected.
Twelve of them are belonging to 4 genera; Aspergillus, Penicillium, Nigrospora and Botrydiploida. Aspergillus and
Penicillium were represented by 5 species each whereas, Nigrospora and Botrydiploida were represented by one species
each. Pathogenicity of 12 fungal species on Galaxea fascicularis and Stylophora pistillata corals revealed that that
the degree of pathogenicity depend up on the fungal species, hard coral species and the duration of exposure to spores.
Colonies of G. fascicularis were more susceptible to fungal infection than S. pistillata where they were infected in the first
week by spores of four fungi compared to one fungal species for S. pistillata. G. Fascicularis was infected by Aspergillus
niger, and A. parasiticus where black spots appeared on some parts of the colonies and the skeleton started to decay. In
general A. flavus, A. fumigatus, Botryoldiploida sp., P. crustosum, and P. echinulatum had no effect on coral colonies.

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