ABSTRACT
Despite the large number of reports describing sponge-microbe associations, limited knowledge is available about associated fungi and their relationships with the hosts. In this work, specific fungal strains were obtained directly from in vitro sponge cell cultures (primmorphs) and single sponge cells (cytospins) and compared with those obtained from whole tissue preparations. A total of 27 fungal strains were isolated from the marine sponges Hymeniacidon heliophila and Haliclona melana. Fifteen strains, nine from H. heliophila and six from H. melana, were obtained from whole tissue and were considered as possible mesohyl associated or transient fungi. Twelve strains were isolated from in vitro sponge cell cultures (primmorphs) and were, therefore, considered as cell associated. From these, five different strains were obtained from H. heliophila isolated cells, while five were identified from cytospins and two from primmorphs of H. melana. The fungal strains obtained from cell cultures from both sponge species were different, and none of them were detected in the whole tissue preparations of the same species. Nine H. heliophila and seven H. melana strains shows low similarity with the sequences available in public databases and belong to potentially new species. This is the first report of fungi isolated directly from sponge cells, which allowed the observation and selection of specific strains that probably would not be obtained by usual culture dependent techniques.