The Xiamen Symposium on Marine Environmental Sciences (XMAS 2025)

Marine plastic pollution is one of the most pressing global environmental issues today where it poses severe threats to aquatic life, ecosystems, and biodiversity. Microbial degradation has been identified as a potentially relevant breakdown route for marine plastic debris. Most research has focused on bacterial degradation, while the degrading potential of pelagic fungi, which constitute a significant component of aquatic microbial communities, is still in its infancy. Metabolically, fungi in marine environments were found to participate in different biogeochemical processes and occupy a plethora of ecological niches. Fungi play a major role in decomposing recalcitrant substrates, making them an integral part of food web structures, contributing to carbon cycling and nutrient regeneration. Recent studies, coupled with high throughput approaches, have demonstrated that pelagic fungi participate actively in the plastic breakdown in the ocean. However, the key fungal species and mechanisms remain understudied. What are the potential active fungal species involved in plastic degradation (all plastic types)? What are the metabolic processes leading to the plastic breakdown? Can fungi alone degrade plastics without the intervention of bacteria? This presentation aims to tackle these fundamental unanswered scientific questions about the potential of marine fungi in marine bioremediation.