Abstract

Until recently, it was believed that the causative pathogen of aspergillosis in sea fan, the fungus Aspergillus sydowii, was exclusively found in diseased sea fans. New findings have shown that A. sydowii and other pathogenic fungi are also found in healthy fans. Here, we characterize the fungal community associated with healthy and diseased tissue from Gorgonia ventalina colonies using culture based techniques. Fungal community and species richness from healthy tissue, healthy fans are higher than in healthy and diseased tissue from diseased fans. However, fungal community in all tissue type was very similar. Aspergillus flavus and Penicillium citrinum were the most abundant fungi in all three tissue types. A. sydowii was never isolated from diseased fans. These results suggest that more than one fungus might cause aspergillosis, and it is likely that these fungi causing aspergillosis are permanent residents in sea fans, turning pathogenic under stressful conditions.

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