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The thermophilic fungus Gymnascella thermotolerans GTE-21 produces a significant amount of both volatile and nonvolatile compounds with potent antifungal and anticancer properties. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was utilized to identify 14 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released by G. thermotolerans. The most predominant compound identified was diisooctyl phthalate, constituting 71.99% of the total VOCs, followed by phenol, 2-methoxy-4-(2-propenyl) at 7.12%. The GTE-21's VOCs demonstrated significant antifungal growth inhibition activity of 42.5% against Fusarium solani and 39.03% against Alternaria alternata. Additionally, GTE-21's crude extract exhibited substantial antibacterial effects, evidenced by inhibition zones of 1.5 cm against S. epidermidis, 1.4 cm against C. ciferrii, and 1.3 cm against S. aureus. The CHR2RClR2R:MeOH (1:1) fraction was more effective against human pathogens, producing the largest zones of inhibition of 1.1 and 1.03 cm against S. epidermidis and C. ciferrii, respectively. The evaluation of GTE-21's antifungal activity using the Evans blue assay showed that fungal spores treated with GTE-21's crude extract exhibited 96.2% inhibition at a concentration of 25 mg/ml. Similarly, the fractions CH2Cl2:MeOH (1:1) and CH2Cl2:MeOH (9:1) demonstrated spore inhibition rates of 96.3% and 94.3%, respectively. The EtOAc crude extract demonstrated pronounced cytotoxic effects against the SKOV-3 and MDA-MB-231 cancer cell lines. For SKOV-3, cell viability decreased to 3.40% and 0.47% at concentrations of 50 and 100 μL, respectively. In the case of MDA-MB-231, cell viability was reduced to 0.19% at both 50 and 100 μL concentrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fruit rot disease of sweet melon is responsible for serious of economic crop losses that have occurred sporadically in Aswan, Egypt recently. The symptoms appeared as water-soaking lesion which advanced to the rotting of the fruit surface. White mycelial mats with brown color inside appear on the lesion at the surface of the fruit. Disease symptoms, morphological and mycological characteristics, pathogenicity and molecular identification, indicated as Fusarium solani, are the disease causative. When healthy fruits of sweet melon sprayed with spore suspension of the isolated F. solani, the disease symptoms appeared as white spot, which enlarged and turned brown. Dual culture techniques showed that the endophytic fungi, Aspergillus terreus, Fusarium solani and Penicillium verrucosum isolated from the medicinal plant Solenostemma arghel inhibited the pathogen growth in variable levels. The extract of ethyl acetate of the endophytic fungal was found to be active against Fusarium solani. The ethyl acetate fractions of Penicillium verrucosum inhibited the pathogen growth by 47% while A. terreus, and F. solani showed inhibition percentage of 45% and 40%, respectively [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]