Oomycetes and fungi: important parasites on marine algae

Considering that the field is largely unexplored and its importance to aquaculture, outline of oomycetes and fungi parasiting on marine algae was provided in this paper, including 15 species of oomycetes, six species of chytrids, 31 Ascomycota species and one species of mitosporic fungi. In natrue, both the oomycetes and chytrids frequently occurred and induced prevalences of disease which could destroy the populations of host plants greatly. However, the parasites in Ascomycota on algae have never occurred as epidemics so far. Some issues relating to the field were discussed such as performing tests to satisfy Koch's postulates, investigations of host specificity, interactions between host and parasite and the potential effects of environmental factors on occurrence of a disease, which are urgent in need of further investigations.