Isolation and Identification of Wide-Spectrum Antifungal Bacteria

Abstract

A type of bacteria was isolated from garden soils (rhizosphere soils of some garden plants) that showed a great antagonistic activities toward different phytopathogenic and even human and toxin-producing fungi especially Aspergillus spp. Many different tests (Gram stain, shape of cells, shape of colonies, pigment production, swarming on plate, catalase, oxidase, gelatin hydrolysis, indol, growth on salt medium, blood hydrolysis,...) were done for the identification of this bacteria, and the results showed that this bacteria was belonged to the genus of Paenibacillus spp. Also the active antifungal compounds were isolated from this bacteria and many tests were done to partially characterize the nature of the compounds produced by this bacteria.