This research explored the potential of fungi derived from the marine sponge Neopetrosia chaliniformis as producers of cytotoxic compounds. Fungi derived from N. chaliniformis were isolated by cultivating on Saboroud Dextrose Agar (SDA) and purified by streak plating. The pure isolated fungi were cultivated using rice as media at 25-27 °C for 4-8 weeks and extracted using ethyl acetate solvent. The ethyl acetate extracts were tested for cytotoxicity using an MTT assay against colon cancer cells (WiDr) and normal cells (VERO). The fungal isolates which have the greatest cytotoxic activity were identified based on morphological and molecular characterization. Thirteen isolates of the fungus were obtained from N. chaliniformis. Six fungi isolates labeled NC01, NC02, NC03, NC06, NC07, and NC09 were found to be cytotoxically active with percentage of viability against WiDr colon cancer cells of 12.1, -2.43, 29.02, 70.31, 14.04, and 46.04, respectively. But, only NC06 isolate showed non-cytotoxic activity against normal Vero cells with percentage of viability of 113.99%. NC06 isolates were identified based on molecular characterization using 18S rRNA primer. The results identified fungus NC06 as Aspergillus nomius with a homology percentage of 99 %.
Key words: N. chaliniformis, Sponge-derived fungus,Aspergillus nomius, Molecular Characterization, Cytotoxic activity
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