Molecular characterization of keratin degrading fungi isolated from semi-arid soil by PCR using ITS4 and ITS5 primers

Abstract

This study was aimed to explore molecular characters of fungal isolates and analyze the phylogenic relationship between isolates. Soil samples collected from different habitats of Jaipur, were analyzed for the prevalence of keratinophilic fungi using the hair baiting technique. The physiological conditions of soil samples were analyzed to study the effect of environmental factors on the growth and occurrence of fungi. Keratinophilic fungi were isolated and then identified on the basis of their macro and micro morphological characteristics. The identification of fungi was confirmed by DNA sequencing by PCR amplification using ITS4 and ITS5 gene primers. The fungal species were identified by the nBLAST using fungal DNA sequences against the data available in NCBI/GenBank. The isolated keratinophilic fungal species were identified as Chaetomium seminis-citrulli and Penicillium guttulosum. These two fungi were reported first time from Rajasthan, India using hair baiting technique. Phylogenic trees were constructed using MEGA7 software with the help of keratinophilic fungi reference data retrieved from NCBI GenBank data, to study the phylogenic relationship between the isolated fungi.