In situ extraction of RNA from marine-derived fungi associated with the marine sponge, Haliclona simulans

Several different methods were compared to recover a significant quantity of high quality RNA from H. simulans containing RNA of marine-derived fungi. Further processing of the RNA showed that amplification products could be obtained using fungal specific primers, RNA enriched in mRNA could be recovered and an oligonucleotide-linker could be attached to cDNA. The potential applications of these methods are discussed for future studies in determining whether marine fungi could be symbiotically associated with marine sponges.