Isolation and characterisation of filamentous fungi from animal agricultural farm soil

Aspergillus sp. is an extremely resilient species that can be found everywhere in the environment and is present abundantly in water and soil. The defining characteristic of Aspergillus sp. is their extensive hyphal network which enable them to survive anywhere, even in very harsh conditions. This study was carried out to isolate the filamentous fungi from peat soil of animal agricultural farm and characterise them based on their morphological and molecular characteristics. Growth rate of each isolated fungi was also evaluated in order to determine the period of maturity for each fungi. Soil samples were collected, weighed and then dissolved in sterile distilled water. The samples were serially diluted and spread onto potato dextrose agar (PDA) for isolation. Different isolated colonies that were morphologically different from each plate was purified and sub-cultured onto new media for macroscopic and microscopic identifications. For molecular identification, a conventional technique was used in genomic DNA extraction of filamentous fungi due to their thick cell wall and presence of surface proteins protecting the fungus. These characteristics make it difficult to harvest the genomic DNA. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was carried out using internal transcribed spacer primersITS1 (forward) and ITS4 (reverse). The morphological identification and molecular technique showed that majority of these isolated fungi are Aspergillus sp