Isolation and Identification of Two Fungal Colonies Exhibiting Antagonistic Growth

The current work was accidentally undertaken during the process of regular lab experiments where one of the fungal plates has dragged the attention towards this study. The plate contained a normal Black colony of fungi which was surprisingly inhibiting the other small white fungal colony of the same plate. The work was then started by producing the pure cultures of the two colonies followed by their identification based on Morphology, Microscopy, Biochemical characters, and 18SrRNA gene sequencing. The black fungi inhibiting the growth was identified to be Aspergillusfumigatus. Further study on its characteristics proved that it has a special property of producing compounds called gliotoxins which are capable of inhibiting the growth of other fungi so as to dominate in the co-cultures for self-survival. The fungal colony being inhibited was identified to be AspergillusnidulansBased on the results the work can be extended to produce these antifungal compounds commercially to inhibit several fungal infections.