Dear Colleagues,

we are very pleased to announce that the first International Workshop in “Marine Fungi: Diversity and Applications”,  will be held on February 10th -11th 2025 in Naples, Italy.

The workshop is scheduled in the frame of the project “Production and characterization of new bioactive molecules against emerging and/or multidrug-resistant pathogens by neglected poly-extremophilic marine fungi (MYCOSEAS)” financed by the E.U “Next Generation EU” by the PRIN 2022 framework (Project n°: 2022MPTT35).

Marine fungi constitute a very composite ecological group including different taxonomical entities, mainly represented by Ascomycota, but also by Basidiomycota, Chytridiomycota, Microsporidia and Cryptomycota. The marine fungal diversity has been estimated over 10000 species, but only about 2000 species have been described till now, representing only a small fraction of the estimated marine fungal diversity. The marine environment is extremely complex being characterized by great variability of physical parameters including salinity and pH, low water activity, temperature and hydrostatic pressure. Moreover, it shows general oligotrophic conditions. The fungal diversity in marine habitats cannot be accounted to single factors: many parameters control the fungal distribution, activity and abundance, due to their broad variations. To cope with the stressing environment, marine fungi have evolved a metabolic diversity that is often quite different from their terrestrial homologues. Recently, the interest in marine and/or marine-derived fungi has been growing due to their unusual or even unique secondary metabolism allowing the discovery of new microbial strains, with unique characteristics, that can be possibly exploited for new bioactive molecules.  

Contributions, which will be selected for oral or poster presentations, can regard the following topics: taxonomy & phylogenesis; mycobiota composition, structure & functionality; enzymes & metabolites; biotechnological applications.