Diversity of fungi from mangrove sediments of Goa, India, obtained by metagenomic analysis using Illumina sequencing

The fungal composition, abundance and diversity of the mangrove sediments from the Mandovi and Zuari estuaries, Goa, using paired-end Illumina sequencing, hitherto unexplored by a metagenomic approach, indicated that though the types of fungal phyla were similar between the two sediments, the abundance of the species was significantly different between them (p value<0.005). Basidiomycota and Ascomycota were the two major phyla which were sub-divided into eighteen classes, families, orders, genera and species and one unassigned group in both the sediments. The top five classes observed were Agaricomycetes, Sordariomycetes, Saccharomycetes, Dothideomycetes and Eurotiomycetes from both the sediments. The diversity analysis based on the observed fungal species richness (Chao 1 for Mandovi were 614 and 714.7 while for Zuari were 665 and 771.2) revealed that Zuari sediment was taxonomically rich, indicating these to be potent candidates for bioremediation and a rich repository for biotechnologically important fungi. This is a first report on diversity of fungi from mangrove sediments of Goa using metagenomic studies.