Despite the rapid development of molecular techniques relevant for natural product research, culture isolates remain the primary source from which natural products chemists discover and obtain new molecules from microbial sources. Techniques for obtaining and identifying microbial isolates (such as filamentous fungi) are thus of crucial importance for a successful natural products' discovery program. This review is presented as a "best-practices guide" to the collection and isolation of marine fungi for natural products research. Many of these practices are proven techniques used by mycologists for the isolation of a broad diversity of fungi, while others, such as the construction of marine baiting stations and the collection and processing of sea foam using dilution to extinction plating techniques, are methodological adaptations for specialized use in marine/aquatic environments. To this day, marine fungi, Sensu stricto, remain one of the few underexplored resources of natural products. Cultivability is one of the main limitations hindering the discovery of natural products from marine fungi. Through encouraged collaboration with marine mycologists and the sharing of historically proven mycological practices for the isolation of marine fungi, our goal is to provide natural products chemists with the necessary tools to explore this resource in-depth and discover new and potentially novel natural products.
Keywords: culturing; identification; isolation; marine fungi; natural products; secondary metabolites.