There is a growing demand for the efficient treatment
of seaweed biomass and the production of seaweeddegrading
enzymes. Fifteen algicolous fungi were isolated
from the Red Sea macroalgae in Egypt and were studied for
their capability of utilizing Sargassum and Palisada biomass
and subsequent production of different thallus-degrading enzymes.
Most of the fungi efficiently saccharified the
macroalgal extracts that amounted to more than 70 % of the
sugars in the unfermented macroalgal extract. Algicolous fungi
fermented Sargassum through extracellular fucoidanases
and alginases that were negatively correlated as revealed by
principal component analysis (PCA), suggesting an antagonistic
degradation of Sargassum polysaccharides. Extracellular
agarases resulted in efficient fermentation of Palisada
biomass. Fungi expressed also amylase and protease activities
that were low or nonexistent and biomass-dependent.Amylase
showed positive correlation with agarase as indicated by PCA,
which suggests that the two enzymes synergistically degrade
Palisada biomass. The enzymatic cocktails were also able to
release reducing sugars from the powdered macroalgal thalli,
indicating the importance of enzymes in the saprophytic
growth of fungi. Generally, enzymatic activities and specific
activities of fucoidanase, alginase, and agarase in algicolous
fungi were higher than reported previously for non-algicolous
fungi. Enzymatic activities of the marine brown algal pathogen
Lindra thalassiae indicated that infection by this pathogen
might occur through alginases. The results shed light into
production of less expensive enzymatic mixtures from an
understudied group of microorganisms targeting seaweeddegradation.
These enzymes have many biotechnological
and industrial applications as thallus maceration and protoplast
isolation despite bioactivity of obtained oligosaccharides