Fungal diversity associated with Goa's tarballs: Insights from ITS region amplicon sequencing.

This study explores the fungal diversity associated with tarballs, weathered crude oil deposits, on Goa's tourist beaches. Despite tarball pollution being a longstanding issue in Goa state in India, comprehensive studies on associated fungi are scarce. Our research based on amplicon sequence analysis of fungal ITS region fills this gap, revealing a dominance of Aspergillus, particularly Aspergillus penicillioides, associated with tarballs from Vagator and Morjim beaches.

High abundance of Vibrio in tarball-contaminated seawater from Vagator beach, Goa, India.

Tarballs are semi-solid remnants of crude oil and they are formed in marine environment after oil-spill incidents. They are composed of diverse hydrocarbons; some of which are recalcitrant in nature. Recent studies based on amplicon sequencing of 16S rRNA gene suggested that tarballs support hundreds of bacterial genera and provided insights into their role as hydrocarbon degraders and potential human pathogens.