Pda agar

The biochemical characterization consisted of qualitative tests to evaluate the production of amylases, lipases [22] (link), proteases [23] (link), cellulases [24] (link), catalases [25] (link), peroxidases [27] (link) and laccases [26] (link). The culture media used to induce production and determine the presence (+) or absence (-) of the enzymatic capacity of the isolated specimens, as well as the way of determining whether the test is positive or not, are specified in Table 1. Additionally, negative controls were made to have a reference point. To carry out these tests, the fungi were previously cultivated for a week at 30 °C on PDA agar (Merck) and from this culture a cut of approximately 5 mm of a piece of agar with mycelium of the fungus was made and transferred to each one of the media. The cultures were incubated at 30 °C for 3-4 days before developing the test.
Table 1. Culture media to induce and determine the presence or absence of enzymatic capacity.

The isolated strains were incubated for one week at 30 °C in 4 specific media: PDA Agar (Merck), Malta Agar (Scharlau), Sabouraud Agar (Scharlau) and Czapek Agar (Scharlau). The growth and macroscopic characteristics of the colonies such as coloration (front and back), shape, elevation, appearance, surface, margin or edge, and growth rate were monitored. The microscopic characteristics of the fungi were observed with the 40X and 100X objective using lactophenol blue [18] and the shape of the spores, hyphae (or mycelium) and reproductive structures were analyzed. To determine the genus of the specimen collected, the morphological characteristics were analyzed with taxonomic keys and identification literature of filamentous fungi [19] [20] [21] . This morphological characterization was subsequently corroborated with molecular techniques and sequencing.