Diversity of Potential Pathogenic Fungi in the Air of Laboratories in the Faculty of Resource Science and Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

Fungi are ubiquitous organisms that can be found everywhere, and even in the air that we have been breathing for years. This study was conducted to isolate and identify the species of fungi that are roaming in the air in the Genetic Engineering Laboratory and Incubation Room in the Faculty of Science and Technology of UNIMAS, and it is also to enumerate the number of fungi colonies isolated based on their colony-forming unit (CFU). The type of media that was used in this study was Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA). Fungi isolates were obtained from air samples, and samplings were performed two times as parameters, therefore there were two cycles in this study. About fortyeight samples were collected and only selected fungi were used as representatives for other abundant isolates. The selected isolates were further analyzed under morphological and molecular analysis. The fungal species found in this study were Aspergillus fumigatus, Asperfillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Penicillium digitatum, Alternaria porri, Alternaria brassicicola, Cladosporium cladosporioides, Cladosporium sphaerospermum, Stachybotrys chartarum and Trichoderma viridae