Isolation of Indigenous Brown Rot Fungi from Rotten Wood from Selected Areas of Pakistan

Aims: Wood decaying fungi are very good candidate for industrial processes like; enzymes productions, dyes biodegradation and wastewater decolorization. Many studies have been conducted to explore their potential for successful industrialization. There is still need to isolate more and more new species so that these can be used for beneficial processes.

Methodology: The current study was conducted to collect Brown Rot Fungi (BRF) species from rotten wood and their morphological identification. The collection was made from Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Murree areas of Pakistan. Collected fungi species were cultured on Malt Extract Agar media at pH 5.5 and pure culture plates were submitted in Mycology Laboratory, Department of Plant Pathology, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi Pakistan for morphological identification by mycologist.

Results: More than 20 species were collected, out of these 05 were cultured on Malt Extract Agar media and identified on morphological basis. Two of these are common brown rot fungi belong to basidomycota and three are un-common brown rot fungi belong to ascomycota.

Conclusion: Rotten wood is a very good source of brown rot fungi. Isolated BRF species can be used to explore their potential of biodegradation of textile dyes.