Wastewater-Agar as a selection environment: A first step towards a fungal in-situ bioaugmentation strategy

Viable and metabolically active fungi in toxic mixed liquors, treating landfill leachates and municipal wastewaters, were identified by culture depending methods. A selective culture medium consisting of wastewater and agar (WA) restrained fungi that could be randomly present (94% of the 51 taxa retrieved on WA were sample-specific), overcoming the problem of fast growing fungi or mycoparasite fungi. Moreover, WA allowed the isolation of fungi with a possible role in the degradation of pollutants typically present in the two wastewaters. Phoma medicaginis var. medicaginis, Chaetomium globosum, and Geotrichum candidum were mainly found in municipal wastewater, whereas Pseudallescheria boydii, Scedosporium apiospermum, Aspergillus pseudodeflectus, and Scopulariopsis brevicaulis were typical of landfill leachate.