An extensive survey of soil mycobiota on citrus and grapevine plantations in Sahel-Saleem City, Assiut Governorate, Egypt was carried out using the dilution-plate method and 2 isolation media at 25 °C. Sixty-four genera and 195 species of filamentous fungi and 10 genera and 13 species of yeasts were recovered. A higher diversity (number of genera and species) and gross total counts were recovered from citrus than from grapevine soil. The peak of filamentous fungi recovered from both soils was found to be in February. Aspergillus (45 species) was the most dominant genus; A. ochraceus predominated in citrus plantations, while A. niger and A. aculeatus in grapevine. The Penicillium count came second after Aspergillus in citrus (23 species) and after Aspergillus and Fusarium in grapevine (11 species).Penicillium citrinum, P. ochrochloron and P. olsonii were more common in citrus plantations, but they were replaced by P. oxalicum in grapevine soil. Fusarium (19 species) was represented in 88.9–100% of both soils on both media; F. solani predominated in both soils, while F. incarnatum came next in citrus, and F. babinda and F. oxysporum in grapevine. Humicola (3 species) with the dominant H. fuscoatra was recorded in 61.1–83.3% of soil of both plantations, while Talaromyces (with T. purpureogenus followed by T. pinophilus being the most common) was recorded in 83.3–100% on DRBC and 38.9–50% on DYM from the soil of plantations of both crops. Volutella (5 species) was common in citrus but missing from grapevine soil. The present study reveals that hyaline fungi predominated over dark-coloured ones. Yeasts comprised only minor proportions in both soils (maximum 0.5%). They showed their peak in the soil of citrus plantations in April and in grapevine in February. All species were recovered in one or two samples only. Diutina catenulata, Debaryomyces hansenii, Galactomyces (3 species), Hanseniaspora occidentalis, Kluyveromyces marxianus, Meyerozyma caribbica, and Schwanniomyces pseudopolymorphus were encountered in citrus only, while Cryptococcus laurentii, Pichia kudriavzevii, Meyerozyma guilliermondii and Rhodotorula sp. in grapevine only. Physiological and growth characteristics were obtained for most of the recovered yeasts.
Abdel-Sater M. A., Moubasher A. H., Soliman Z. S. M. (2016): Diversity of filamentous and yeast fungi in soil of citrus and grapevine plantations in the Assiut region, Egypt. – Czech Mycology 68(2): 183–214.
