Novel Enzymes Isolated from Marine-derived Fungi and its Potential Applications

Marine environments provide habitats to a diverse group of microorganisms which play an important role in nutrient recycling by decomposing dead organic matters. In this regard, marine-derived fungi can be considered a great source of novel bio-active molecules of environmental and industrial importance. The morphological and taxonomical diversity of marine-derived fungi as compared to their terrestrial counterpart make it more interesting candidate to be explored and utilized in marine biotechnology. Fungi isolated from different marine habitats produce important enzymes with interesting characteristics. As marine-derived fungi have adapted well through evolution to thrive in the extreme marine conditions, they exhibited tremendous level specialization in the form of producing important secondary metabolites particularly novel enzymes which can be considered a better prospect for many future applications. This article discusses novel marine-derived enzymes, isolated from different marine fungi. From recent researches, it is cleared that marine-derived fungi have the potential to produce novel enzymes and important secondary metabolites. Lignin-degrading enzymes are one of the most important products produced by most marine-derived fungi. Future research that concentrates on culturing of rare and unique marine fungi with novel products, with an understanding of their biochemistry and physiology may pave the path for marine myco-technology.

Keywords: Marine-derived fungi, lignin, biotechnology, bioremediation, myco-technology, enzymes.