Vol 7, No 1, December 2016.

Biodiversity of mycobiota associated with some rotted vegetables with special reference to their celluloytic and pectinolytic abilities


Abstract: Fungi deteriorating vegetables are serious problem since they make their taste and odor unpalatable. Thus, the current work aimed to evaluate those fungi responsible for deteriorating vegetables and their enzyme-producing capabilities. A total of 45 species belonging to 19 genera were isolated on DRBC agar medium at 28°C, from carrot root (25 species, 13 genera), cucumber (26 & 13) and pepper (26 & 10), while, the lowest were observed on strawberry fruits (13 & 10). The most commonly deteriorating fungi were Fusarium, Aspergillus, Alternaria, Cladosporium, Geotrichum and Rhizopus, with A. niger, A. flavus, A. alternata, F. solani and G. candidum were the most common species. Among 83 isolates, related to 42 species tested for their ability to produce cellulase and pectinase enzymes, 79 (95.18%) and 75 (90.36%) had the ability to produce these enzymes respectively. The highest cellulase producers were isolates of A. flavus var. columnaris, Exserohilum rostratum, Mucor circinelloides, M. hiemalis, M. racemosus, Penicillium chrysogenum and R. stolonifer. From the pectinase producers, 15 isolates showed high enzyme production and these were related to A. flavus, E. rostratum, F. dimerum, F. poae, F. proliferatum, F. sambucinum, F. solani, F. verticillioides, M. circinelloides, M. hiemalis, M. racemosus and R. stolonifer. The remaining isolates were either moderate (58 and 45 isolates) or weak (12 and 15) producers for cellulase or pectinase respectively. Key words: Carrot, cucumber, pepper, strawberry, vegetables, fungi, cellulase, pectinase.