Application of culturomics in fungal isolation from mangrove sediments

This study attempted to isolate uncultured and rare fungi from mangrove sediments using newly developed fungal enrichment culture method (FECM) and fungal isolation chips (FiChips). Comparison of fungal community composition at different enrichment stages showed that FECM had great influence on fungal community composition, with rare taxa increased significantly, thus improving the isolation efficiency of "uncultured" fungi. Similarly, in situ cultivation using FiChips has a significant advantage in detecting and culturing rare fungi, as compared to the conventional dilution plate method (DPM).