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lbgBackground and Objectives:l/bg Anthraquinone synthetic dyes are widely used in textile, dyeing and paper painting. The discharge of these dyes into the environment causes detriment. The removal of physiochemical dyes is sometimes unsuccessful and expensive. Biological removal is inexpensive, eco-friendly and may break down organic contaminants. In the current work, a fungal technique was applied to decolorize and detoxify dye. lbgMaterials and Methods:l/bg Dye decolorizing fungi isolation, selection and identification of the most effective isolate and dye decolorization optimization based on carbon and nitrogen sources. In addition, the product's cytotoxicity and metabolites were tested. The enzyme activities were measured to determine dye decolorization. lbgResults:l/bg Decolorization of reactive blue 19 dye by the most effective fungal strain isolate (5BF) isolated from industrial effluents were studied. This isolate was identified as ligAspergillus flavusl/ig based on phenotypic characteristics and confirmed using 18S rRNA gene sequencing. Thin-layer chromatography indicated that this strain is aflatoxins free. Furthermore, metabolites produced from dye treatment with ligA. flavusl/ig were assessed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Toxicity data revealed that ligA. flavusl/ig metabolites were not toxic to plants. Using a one-factor-at-a-time optimization technique, a maximum decolorization percentage (99%) was obtained after 72 hrs in the presence of mannitol and NHlsubg4l/subgNOlsubg3l/subg or NHlsubg4l/subgCl as carbon and nitrogen sources. Two enzymes (laccase and manganese peroxidase) were shown to be active during dye decolorization by ligA. flavusl/ig. lbgConclusion:l/bg The ligA. flavusl/ig strain was shown to be safe when it came to removing dye from a synthetic medium with high efficiency and their metabolites had no negative influence on the environment. As a result, this strain will be used in the future for dye wastewater bioremediation.

Spherical homogeneous 32 nm, protein coated Pseudomonas silesiensis strain A3 CuNPs was investigated for their cytotoxicity effect as well as antimicrobial and antitumor activity. CuNPs cytotoxicity was estimated using human normal lung cell lines (Wi38) against CuNPs with concentrations ranging from 25 to 150 μg/mL using neutral red uptake assay. The cytotoxicity study revealed that the bacterial CuNPs had an impact on Wi38 cell viability at concentrations of 25, 50, 100 and 150 μg/mL CuNPs were 95.8, 91.1, 89.2 and 82.3%, respectively, with a strong correlation coefficient (r = 0.94) and a CuNPs IC50 value of 1057.0 μg/mL. CuNPs exhibit a broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity against various microorganism species, including fungi and Gram positive and negative bacteria using the agar-well diffusion method. The findings revealed that the most sensitive pathogens were Staphylococcus aureus ATCC5638 and Aspergillus flavus ATCC 9643 which tended to have a high inhibition zone diameter (50 and 47 mm, respectively). The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of CuNPs was 50 μg/mL. The minimum lethal concentration (MLC) values were 50 and 75 μg/mL for S. aureus ATCC 5638 and A. flavus ATCC 9643, respectively. MLC/MIC ratio was ≤2, suggesting the CuNPs had a bactericidal or fungicidal effect on both pathogenic strains. Results also indicated that bacterial CuNPs at varying concentrations of 25, 50, 100 and 150 μg/mL were such a good antitumor agent against A549 lung carcinoma cell lines with an IC50 value of 137.5 μg/mL and a cell viability of 89.3, 79.6, 64.9 and 44.1%, respectively. The results also suggested that the biosynthesized-CuNPs were an antimicrobial and anticancer agent that could be used in future in food preservation, biomedicine and pharmaceutical fields.

Background Rhizopus species is among the most well-known lipase producers, and its enzyme is suitable for use in many industrial applications. Our research focuses on the production of lipase utilizing waste besides evaluating its applications. Results An extracellular lipase was partially purified from the culture broth of Rhizopus oryzae R1 isolate to apparent homogeneity using ammonium sulfate precipitation followed by desalting via dialysis. The partially purified enzyme was non-specific lipase and the utmost activity was recorded at pH 6, 40 °C with high stability for 30 min. The constants Km and Vmax, calculated from the Lineweaver-Burk plot, are 0.3 mg/mL and 208.3 U/mL, respectively. Monovalent metal ions such as Na+ (1 and 5 mM) and K+ (5 mM) were promoters of the lipase to enhance its activity with 110, 105.5, and 106.5%, respectively. Chitosan was used as a perfect support for immobilization via both adsorption and cross-linking in which the latter method attained immobilization efficiency of 99.1% and reusability of 12 cycles. The partially purified enzyme proved its ability in forming methyl oleate (biodiesel) through the esterification of oleic acid and transesterification of olive oil. Conclusion The partially purified and immobilized lipase from Rhizopus oryzae R1 approved excellent efficiency, reusability, and a remarkable role in detergents and biodiesel production.

The increasing demand of consumers who look for natural safe products and associated health risks of chemically treated and refined goods food products led to the introduction of alternative technologies for Preservation and maintenance of dietary freshness. One of such Preservation technology requires the use of Lactobacilli as starter culture for the preservation of food matrixes planned. The present study was designed to evaluate sweet whey low-cost by- product of dairy manufacture as a substrate for the selection of Lactobacilli with proven antibacterial activity to be used as biopreservation for fermented dairy product. Human population has used dairy products, including milk, as a source for Lactic acid bacteria (LAB). The positive impact of the given bacteria as a diet supplement has been of concern to researchers. The target of this study is to examine Lactobacillus species isolated from dairy products i.e. raw milk alongside cheese, with potential activities. Using the Sweet whey as growth medium for Lactic acid bacteria. Also, tested of antibacterial activities. Sweet whey (sw) proved to be suitable medium alternative to the expensive commercial De Man-Regosa-Sharp medium for the growth and production of antibacterial substances by isolated lactic acid bacteria isolates. Therefore, was used throughout the present work. A number of 32 isolates were obtained from raw cow milk (16 isolates), goat milk (9 isolates) and cottage cheese (7 isolates) using the specific De Man-RegosaSharp medium (MRS) for the isolation of LAB, these isolates were identified up to genus as strains of Lactobacillus spp. Among 32 isolates of Lactobacillus spp., there are twenty four isolates antagonized of the all seven tested pathogenic bacteria. The screened Lactobacillus spp. isolates were characterized and selected the best bio agent isolate against pathogens was identified using 16s DNA gene to Lactobacillus brevis. This strain was resistant to NaCl (2-6.5 %), produces dioxide carbon (CO2) and showed good growth in different temperature (10°, 15, 45°C) and fermented of many sugars. As per the outcomes shown herein, the strain in question was thought to be antimicrobial bacterium produced a variety of metabolites, including butyric, formic, lactic, citric, and sorbic acid. The given set of activities adds to microbiological safety by helping control microorganism growth, and inhibiting pathogenic bacteria by using the lower-cost sweet whey. Therefore, more detailed work on isolating and characterizing antibacterial bacteria from the locally produces dairy items, and augmenting their growth could be needed for the creation of biopreservative foods.

Three types of Kombucha fermented tea, rice, and barley were produced in order to study their changes of biological and chemical parameters. About a 2-fold increase in mushroom dry weight after 8 days of growth was observed with Kombucha tea. The optical density of the Kombucha extracts gave the same trend. Moreover, Kombucha tea recorded the highest specific growth rate and lowest doubling time. The total acidity, ethanol content, and total protein content were incremented with the fermentation process to reach the peak after 6–8 days as in descending order: tea > barley ≥ rice. The scavenging abilities of DPPH were in descending order, tea (89.69%) > barley (76.19%) > rice (36.04%). The total phenolic compounds of Kombucha tea (88.8 ppm) have the same trend, which more than 3-fold of Kombucha rice (26.11 ppm). Results revealed that the Kombucha tea preservation method using heat treatment (at 76 and 100 °C for 10 min) was not successful, resulting in a decrease in antioxidant amounts to 71.0 and 53.42% and total phenolic compounds to 40.22 and 45.69 ppm, respectively.

The fermented solution of this strain contains the highest concentration of citric acid, indole acetic acid (IAA) and elements as well as phosphatase activity. Using the Aspergillus tubingensis USMI03 RPf10 fermented solution as a medium led to decrease in the growth rate of tested bacterial isolates (Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas fluorescens and Escherichia coli) and fungal isolates (Aspergillus sp. and Penicillium sp.) except Trichoderma viride which gave the same growth on fermented solution treatments compared to control. Whereas the tested yeast isolates (Candida olivera and Saccharomyces cerevisiae) recorded the same growth rate on fermented solution treatments as whole media and higher growth rate on fermented solution + glucose treatment, compared to control. Also, the latter treatment resulting in higher growth of some tested bacteria (B. subtilis and P. fluorescens) and the same growth rate of other bacteria (E. coli), compared to synthetic media. The growth of Rhizopus sp. decreased on fermented solution treatments than control. It is suggested that, using A. tubingensis USMI03 RPf10 fermented solution as a whole medium or as a mineral could be used as a source for microbial growth which varied from one microorganism to another.

lt;bgt;Background and Objectives:lt;/bgt; Anthraquinone synthetic dyes are widely used in textile, dyeing and paper painting. The discharge of these dyes into the environment causes detriment. The removal of physiochemical dyes is sometimes unsuccessful and expensive. Biological removal is inexpensive, eco-friendly and may break down organic contaminants. In the current work, a fungal technique was applied to decolorize and detoxify dye.lt;bgt;Materials and Methods:lt;/bgt; Dye decolorizing fungi isolation, selection and identification of the most effective isolate and dye decolorization optimization based on carbon and nitrogen sources. In addition, the product's cytotoxicity and metabolites were tested. The enzyme activities were measured to determine dye decolorization.lt;bgt;Results:lt;/bgt; Decolorization of reactive blue 19 dye by the most effective fungal strain isolate (5BF) isolated from industrial effluents were studied. This isolate was identified aslt;igt;Aspergillus flavuslt;/igt; based on phenotypic characteristics and confirmed using 18S rRNA gene sequencing. Thin-layer chromatography indicated that this strain is aflatoxins free. Furthermore, metabolites produced from dye treatment withlt;igt;A. flavuslt;/igt; were assessed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Toxicity data revealed thatlt;igt;A. flavuslt;/igt; metabolites were not toxic to plants. Using a one-factor-at-a-time optimization technique, a maximum decolorization percentage (99%) was obtained after 72 hrs in the presence of mannitol and NHlt;subgt;4lt;/subgt;NOlt;subgt;3lt;/subgt; or NHlt;subgt;4lt;/subgt;Cl as carbon and nitrogen sources. Two enzymes (laccase and manganese peroxidase) were shown to be active during dye decolorization bylt;igt;A. flavuslt;/igt;.lt;bgt;Conclusion:lt;/bgt; Thelt;igt;A. flavuslt;/igt; strain was shown to be safe when it came to removing dye from a synthetic medium with high efficiency and their metabolites had no negative influence on the environment. As a result, this strain will be used in the future for dye wastewater bioremediation.

Five probiotic bacterial strains (Lactobacillus plantarumATCC 14917,Lactobacillus caseiDSM 20011, Lactobacillus acidophilus ATCC20552, Lactococcus thermophilus DSM 20259,and Bifidobacterium longum B41409) were used as monoculture, and combined with them as co-cultures for the fermentation of soymilk. The total number is 20 co-cultures, separated similarly into two parts, the first half of each co-culture consisted of two strains, and the second half of each co-culture consists of three strains. The findings revealed that these cultures were capable of fermenting soymilk at only 8 h with a pH drop of between 4.42 and 4.89. Among 25 cultures, eight cultures (3 monoculture of L. plantarumATCC 14917 (C1),Lc. thermophilusDSM 20259 (C4), and B. longum B41409 (C5) and co-cultures of two strains L. plantarum ATCC 14917+ Lc. thermophiles DSM 20259 (C8) and of three strains L. plantarum ATCC 14917 + Lc. thermophilus DSM 20259 + B. longum B41409 (C18), L. plantarum ATCC 14917+ L. caseiDSM 20011+ Lc. thermophilus DSM 20259 (C19), L. caseiDSM 20011+ L. acidophilus ATCC20552+ Lc. thermophilus DSM 20259 (C22), and L. acidophilus ATCC20552+ Lc. thermophilus DSM 20259 + B. longum B41409 (C25)) which recorded the greatest significant viability of bacterial cells, titratable acidity, total organic acids (lactic, acetic, and propionic acids) contented, and pH in fermented soymilk ranged from 9.26 to 9.98 Log CFU/mL, 3.06 to 3.32 %, 19.90 to 18.40 g/L (lactic acid), 13.30 to 12.30 g/L (acetic acid), and 16.35 to15.00 g/L (propionic acid), and 4.38 to 4.62. The soy yogurt produced from the selected fermentation of soymilk was more preferred in the chemical composition of protein, carbohydrate, and fat contents than non-fermented soymilk.So the results show that the integrative use of probiotics may achieve the nutritional value of soymilk after fermentation had been improved by probiotic strains, therefore, making it a more health-beneficial functional food.

Mulberry silkworm, Bombyx mori L. is in-fected with many diseases. In this work, two fungi species, Aspergillus fumigatus and As-pergillus flavus, were isolated from the in-fected B. mori larvae during rearing process. The morphological symptoms were the same for both fungi and appeared from newly hatched larvae until moth formation. In larvae, black spots of both fungi species appeared eve-rywhere on the body, then these spots extended and eventually larvae died, and fragments of the fungus came out from the spots. The only one difference between the two fungi, is that symptoms of A. fumigatus appeared four days earlier than those of A. flavus. Newly hatched larvae were sprayed with spore suspension (1x106 conidia spores/ml) of A. fumigates and A. flavus separately. One and 12 hrs. after in-oculation, larvae were sprayed with different concentrations of fungicide (Actamyl), sali-cylic acid, and henna and propolis powders, in isolation. After words, mortality and survival percentages were calculated and compared to those that occurred in untreated check (larvae were inoculated with A. fumigatus and A. fla-vus separately without any control treatment). The lowest mortality and highest survival per-centage were occurred in larvae treated with salicylic acid at 10% after 12 hrs. from inocu-lation with A. fumigatus. On the other hand, the lowest mortality and highest survival percent-ages occurred in larvae treated with the fungi-cide Actamyl at 6% and henna at 15% after 12 hrs. from inoculation with A. flavus.

Among 46 local bacterial isolates capable synthetized pigments, 26% produced extracellular of blue green and fluorescent whereas 74% produced intra-cellular pigments of red, brown, yellow, orange, and rose. Seven isolates were selected as a potential candidate for the synthesis of pigments. They were Pseudomonas fluoresces, P. aeruginosa, Serratia marcescens, Azotobacter chroococcum, Micrococcus kristinae, M. luteus, and M. roseus after their morphological and biochemical studies. They capable to produce fluorescent, blue green, red, brown, orange, yellow, and rose with maximum absorbance at 400, 520, 530, 320, 440, 460, and 470 nm, with an optical density of 0.62, 1.42,1.35, 1.11, 0.45, 0.98, and 0.40, respectively. Antibacterial activity of pigments was studied against 7 bacterial pathogenic strains namely P. aeruginosa ATCC27853, Escherichia coli 0157h7 ATCC25922, Klebsiella pneumonia ATCC00607, Salmonella typhimurium ATCC25566, Listeria monocytogenes ATCC19115, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC29737, and Bacillus cereus ATCC33018. The last tested strain behaved high significant (p≤ 0.05) sensitivity for blue green, fluorescent, brown, and rose pigments while, L. monocytogenes ATCC19115 was more susceptible for red, and yellow pigments and S. aureus ATCC29737 had more inhibited by orange pigment. These bacterial pigments seemed to have antioxidant activity which inhibited the formation of diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radicals with percentage ranged from 40 % to 80 %. It could therefore be stated that the bacterial pigments tested had a broad impact on foodborne pathogens and had an antioxidant effect

Biodegradation of Lignocellulosic wastes (cotton stalks and corn cobs) was carried out by single and mixed cultures of Trichoderma viride T3 and three strains of Aspergillus niger with code A2, A4 and An2. Results indicated that biodegradation of cotton stalks and corn cobs by mixed culture gave higher activities for cellulase production and saccarification than single cultures. Mixed culture of Trichoderma viride T3 and Aspergillus niger A4 gave the highest activity of cellulase being 1.02 & 0.94 U/ml with 49.7 & 45.8 % of saccarification on media containing alkaline corn cobs and cotton stalks, respectively. It was observed that the ability of the mixed for degrading corn cobs was more efficient than degrading cotton stalks which increased about 1.08 fold of cellulase activity and saccharification. The biological and enzyme parameters of co-culture on alkaline corn cobs were calculated, which recorded 56.73 % of yield factor, 85.59 % of sugar utilization efficiency, 16.60 % of effective yield, 32.55 % enzyme yield, 37.60 % conversion coefficient with productivity of 0.15 U/ml/d.

The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) were measured at concentrations of 0.01–2.56 mg/mL of grape and mulberry leaves ethanolic extracts. The MIC values were ranged from 0.08 to 0.16 mg/mL against Ps. aeruginosa Ps9, and 0.32 mg/mL against each of S. aureus St3, E. coli Ec3, and S. typhi Sa1. Whereas, the MBC values were ranged from 0.32 to 1.28 mg/mL of the tested extracts. The effects of the tested extracts were also studied representing the bactericidal effect of the grape extract with a ratio of 2 against all investigated isolates, except S. typhi Sa1. Whereas, the mulberry extract had a bactericidal effect towards S. aureus St3 and E. coli Ec3 with ratio of 2, and a bacteriostatic effect against Ps. aeruginosa Ps9 and S. typhi Sa1 with a ratio ≥4. The investigated bacteria found to have a strong ability to form biofilms with densities ranged from 0.67 to 0.80. Both tested extracts inhibited these biofilms with percentages ranged from 48 to 66% at sub-inhibitory concentrations (SICs) ranged from 0.04 to 0.16 mg/mL. In addition, the tested extracts have an excellent cytotoxic activity towards colon cancer cell lines (HCT-16). Five phenolic compounds detected in the tested extracts of grape and mulberry using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) after 9.53 min of the retention time. The phenolic compounds of both tested extracts were gallic, coumaric, ferulic, chlorogenic and caffeic with concentrations ranged from 1.28 to 6.56 µg/mL.

Plants and plant by-products are now gaining attractiveness in treatment of bacterial infections and food preservation. The objective of this study was to assess antibacterial activity of some Egyptian plant and plant by-products against the locally pathogenic isolates from patients having infectious diseases in our country. Screening of antibacterial activity of ethanol, methanol and hexane extracts of some plants: grape leaves (Vitis vinifera), mulberry leaves (Morus alba), mallow leaves (Corchorus olitorius) and lemon leaves (Citrus limon) toward Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella sp., were investigated. Antibacterial activity was performed by the agar disc diffusion method. The ethanol and methanol extract of tested plant leaves showed promising antibacterial activities against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative tested bacterial isolates due to its great ability to extract those polyphenolic and biological active compounds from natural sources which effectively act against broad spectrum bacteria. Ethanol followed by methanol were found to be the best solvents of choice to extract natural products to get maximum health and medicinal benefits. The results revealed that the extraction efficiency increase with polarity increasing of the solvents, hence the highest extraction done with ethanol and methanol and the lowest extraction with nonpolar solvent n-hexanedid not exhibit any activity against all the tested bacteria. Irradiation at 5 and 10 kGy did not significantly affect the antibacterial activity of all tested plant leaves. Results indicate the potential of these plants for further work on isolation and characterization of the active compounds responsible for antibacterial activity and its exploitation as therapeutic agents

DECOLORIZATION of textile reactive azo dyes, blue and yellow, by 15 bacterial isolates collected from Egyptian arid soil was investigated. Of these, S8 isolate revealed a highest decolorization performance. Here, we identified S8 isolate on a molecular level based on type I chaperonin universal target sequence (cpn60). The most similar DNA sequence to the S8 DNA sequence was for Klebsiella oxytoca partial CDS (AB008147.1) coding for GroES and GroEL chaperon homologues (acronyms of cpn60) with 88% DNA sequence similarity. The impact of numerous exterior parameters to improve the decolorization abilities of this isolate was studied. A maximum decolorization activity occurred at a medium containing glucose, soybean husk at a C/N ratio of 12:1 supplemented with dye concentration of 100mg/L and amended with 3% (v/v) inoculum. Incubation for 4 days at 35°C±2 with shaking at 150rpm reached the decolorization activity to 89.35 and 78.23% for blue and yellow dyes, respectively. The ascending levels of bacterial enzymes like azo-reductase, phenol red manganese peroxidase and ascorbate oxidase indicated their prominent roles in dye degradation.

Tannase is an inducible enzyme which hydrolysate tannin to gallic acid and used to in many industries such as food and pharmaceutical. This enzyme has scooped more attention in recent times. A maximum production of tannase (ranged from 0.30 to 0.93 enzyme index and from1.05 to 1.87 U/mg specific tannase activity (STA)) and gallic acid (from 0.07 to 0.76 mg/ml gallic acid concentration (GAC)) was achieved by 8 fungal strains out of 24 fungal and yeast strains belonged to genera; Aspergillus, Rhizopus, Trichoderma, Fusarium, Penicillium, Candida and Saccharomyces. The selected fungi were grown on tannin-rich substrates (eucalyptus leaves, pomegranate peel, banana peel, guava leaves and wheat bran) and by-products (corn steep liquor (CSL) and soybean extract) as sole carbon and nitrogen sources for tannase and GA production at 28°C for 6 days under liquid-surface (LSF), submerged (SmF) and solid-state (SSF) fermentation. Results indicated that A. niger A8 and T. viride with 10% (v/v) of inoculum size gave a high STA (from 8.08 to 10.95 U/mg) and GAC (from 2.62 to 4.00 mg/ml) on pomegranate and banana peels supplemented with CSL after 4 days incubation at 28°C under SSF compared to SmF and LSF. STA (ranged from 10.68 to 12.93 U/mg) and GAC (ranged from 3.56 to 4.16 mg/ml) were increased when inoculated the medium with both A. niger A8+T. viride (with 5:5% v/v of inoculum size) more than when inoculated with each of them separately.

T HE CURRENT research deals with optimization of the factors affecting lipase production under submerged culture system. The most efficient isolate R1 was identified depending on cultural and morphological characteristics together with 18S rRNA sequence as Rhizopus oryzae. Using one variable at a time, the maximum lipase activity (171.8 U/mL) was recorded in the presence of 1% fish-frying oil, mixture of peptone and yeast extract at pH 5 with 8% v/v of fungal inoculum after 4 days at 30°C. The screening of the most significant factors using Plackett-Burman design revealed that among ten variables, four, i.e. incubation temperature, inoculum size, incubation period and agitation speed, affected significantly (p-values ranged from 0.003 to 0.049) on the lipase activity. Optimization by using response surface methodology (RSM) through central composite design (CCD) resulted in the highest predicted lipase activity (216.2 U/mL) in which fermentation medium was inoculated with 8% inoculum size and incubated at 28°C under agitation speed of 150 rpm for 4 days.

Thirty-one bacterial isolates out of 133 isolates, were obtained from rhizosphere of Egyptian clover plants, and had variant capability for starch degradation on starch agar medium. The isolate E109 was the most potent being 72.5 U ml −1 and 2.5 for amylase activity and starch hydrolysis ratio (SHR), respectively, at 50 °C. The potent isolate E109 was identified based on phenotypic characteristics, phylogenetic positions based on 16S rRNA gene analysis and base sequences (submitted to NCBI Gen Bank). 16S rRNA gene analysis confirmed that this isolate belonged to the genus Bacillus and it was most closely related to B. amyloliquefaciens (95% similarity). For the production of amylases, nine agro-industrial residues were added as carbon sources to the basal medium. The medium supplemented with potato starchy waste as the sole carbon source enhanced the enzyme activity more than soluble starch as control for α, β and γ amylases activity, as it increased by B. amyloliquefaciens about 1.26 & 4 and 8-fold, respectively after 48 h at 50 °C using rotary shaker at 150 rpm. B. amyloliquefaciens gave the maximum values of α, β and γ amylases activity on medium supplemented with 2% potato starchy waste after 30, 30 & 36 h of fermentation periods at 50 °C using shake flasks technique as a batch culture. These values were 155.2 U ml −1 ( R 2 = 0.93), 1.0 U ml −1 ( R 2 = 0.94) and 2.4 U ml −1 ( R 2 = 0.95), respectively. It could be stated that productive medium supplemented with 2% potato starchy waste as a low price substrate could be more favorable than basal medium containing 1% starch for amylases production in submerged fermentation, as it increased α, β and γ amylase activity by 1.98, 7.69 and 12-fold than that produced in basal medium (control), respectively.

A number of 26 fungal cultures were isolated from different phosphatic sources, including phosphate fertilizers and rock phosphate. The highest number and percentage of isolates were obtained from tri-phosphate fertilizer and rock phosphate samples (9 isolates with 34.6% for each sample) and then 8 isolates with 30.8% from monophosphate fertilizer. These isolates were tested for heavy metals biosorption on solid medium supplemented with different metal ions at concentration of 50 ppm. Eighteen out of 26 isolates were able to grow on solid medium containing heavy metals. The selected isolates were also screened for removal of heavy metals with different concentrations (0–150 ppm) in liquid medium. Among 18 fungal cultures, 5 isolates were chosen for their high capability to tolerance of high concentration of heavy metals (150 ppm), and it was found that the fungal growth was promoted in the presence of U, Cr5+ Cu++ for FR1 (0.026, 0.133 and 0.128 g/100 ml), Cr5+ for FR7 (0.246 g/100 ml), Zn++, Co++ and Pb++ for FR13 (0.219, 0.371 and 0.303 g/100 ml), U for FR15 (0.174 g/100 ml) and Zn++, Co++ and Pb++ for FR16 (0. 203, 0.385 and 0.312 g/100 ml). These isolates FR1 & FR7, FR13, FR15 & FR16 belong to genus Aspergillus as identified by their morphological properties, respectively.