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

Abstract 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.