ISOLATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF FUNGI ASSOCIATED WITH DIFFERENT SPECIES OF STORED GRAINES

Abstract

This study was conducted on different species of stored grains obtained from Duhok Province,
Kurdistan Region, of Iraq to investigate the occurrence of seed borne fungi. Nine types of grains were
collected and two methods were selected (agar plate method and blotter method) for fungal isolation. A
total of 19 species assigned to 13 genera were identified. The high frequent genera were Aspergillus (4
species), Penicillium, Alternaria and Fusarium (2 species), while other genera include Rhizopus,
Cladosporium, Stemphylium, Ulocladium, Humicola, Bipolaris, Curvularia Phoma and Rhizoctonia were
represented only in a single species. The results showed a variation in the fungal species and
contamination percentage according to the detection and incubation methods. The lowest occurrence
percentage was detected in lentils seeds with only one genus represented by Penicillium spp., while the
highest occurrence percentage was detected with Chickpea seeds represent by six genera. The most
common fungal genera displayed by agar plate method in wheat and chickpea were Rhizoctonia sp.
(34.1%) and Penicillium sp. (42.5%) respectively. The highest fungal detection by blotter method was
recorded with barley seeds while the lowest was chickpea seeds. The most common fungal genera
recorded by blotter method under room temperature after 7 days and 14 days was Penicillium spp, with a
percent 100% from chickpea seeds followed by Aspergillus spp with percent of (66.7%, 47.6%) from
barley and raisin seeds respectively. While the highest frequent fungus in seeds incubated at 25°C after 7
and 14 days was Aspergillus parasiticus (88.9%) from mash seeds and Rhizopus sp. (80.1%) from lima
bean respectively. Blotter method considered an efficient and economically reliable method.