A survey of keratinophilic fungi from soil samples taken from forests and farm yards in Razvi Khorasan and North Khorasan Provinces

Keratin amateur fungi which are a subgroup of Keratinophilic fungi, due to secretion of keratinase are keratinolytic and causes diseases in human and animals. They are also important in different industries. The high keratin in agriculture soil and forest soil can provide the optimum condition to grow keratinophilic fungi. This encouraged us to determine the prevalence and identification of keratinophilic fungi in multiple samples of the soil of farm yards and forest localities at Northern Khorasan and Razavi Khorasan Provinces, Iran This is a descriptive comparative study using classified samples. The samples included 140 soil samples from farm yards and forest localities in Northern Khorasan and Khorasan Razavi Provinces, Iran. They were cultured using Vanbreuseghemii. Then, various fungi grown within the cultures were identified and counted. Collected data were analyzed using two-scale and multi-scale tables as well as relevant statistical tests. Of 784 colonies, %71.43 of colonies had been collected from Khorasan Razavi Province and %28.5 colonies from Northern Khorasan Province. Annxiopsis stercoraria with 240 colonies (%30.6) and different species of Chrysosporium with 133 colonies (%17) were found to be the most common species. This investigation revealed that the keratinase in keratinolytic isolates could degrade the keratinous stuff of the environment and could be useful in managing heavily polluted habitats. Finally to the best of our knowledge this is the first report concerning isolation of Myriodontium keratinophilum as keratinolytic fungi from soil samples in studied areas in Iran.