Fungal diversity of echinoderms collected in São Sebastião (São Paulo coast).

Abstract

Very little is still known about the microbial diversity of microorganisms associated with echinoderms. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the microbiota of different echinoderms, as well as the secondary metabolism of these lineages. The present project aims to answer, albeit partially, the following questions: a) Are fungal strains isolated from echinoderm viscera mostly undescribed from a taxonomic point of view? b) Does the secondary metabolism of fungal strains isolated from echinoderm viscera exhibit significantly distinct secondary metabolites from that observed for widely occurring microorganisms in nature? Thus, in this project, the objectives are: a) To identify fungal strains isolated from echinoderms; b) To perform metabolomic analyses of the culture media of these fungal species, using analyses by HPLC-UV-MS and UPLC-qTOF-MS, statistical and chemometric analyses in conjunction with different databases (GNPS-Molecular Networking, Dictionary of Natural Products, and SciFinder).