Isolation and Identification of Soil Mycoflora in the Upland and Lowland Soils of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Sokoto State

Abstract

A total of 14 different fungal species belonging to 7 genera were isolated from the upland and lowland soils of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, between October to December, 2015. The mycoflora were isolated using dilution plate technique on Potato dextrose agar amended by 1% streptomycin. Identification was made microscopically using the lacto-phenol cotton blue method and macroscopically by comparing the cultural and morphological features with the help of authentic fungal manual and taxonomic key. The identified species are; Aspergillus niger, A. flavus, A. fumigatus, A. nidulans, A. oryzae, Alternaria longifes, Fusarium oxysporum, F. solani, F. mangifera, Rhizopus stolonifer, R. orizae, Saccharomyces cerevisae, Trichoderma harzianum and Trichophytum quallinum. The highest number of fungi (50 isolates) were obtained from lowland uncultivated soils (D), followed by the upland uncultivated soils (B) with about 34 strains, and the least (22 isolates) were obtained from upland cultivated soils (A) out of the total 132 isolates. Variations between sites were statistically analyzed.