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By increasing the undesirable side effects of synthetic food pigments on human health, using safe natural food pigment become an urgent issue. Incorporate corn starch with oils conducted a high impact on red pigment production by Monascus purpureus. Fortification the medium with sesame oil raised the pigment production by 80% and the dry mass by 63% compared with free oil medium. Response surface methodology maximizes the production with 114.6% (12.8 A 500) using medium constituents (g/l); Sesame oil 5; Corn starch 30; Yeast extract 1.5; KH 2 PO 4 2.5 and MgSO 4 .7H 2 O 0.1. After evaluating red pigment stability in three common food components, citric acid showed a great effect on residual stability percentage compared with ascorbic and salicylic acid which decrease slightly the residual stability percentage at light and dark conditions. The mitotic index of red pigment was lower than the negative control at all tested concentrations. Different types of mitotic chromosomal abnormalities e.g. lagging chromosome, chromosomal bridge, chromosome and chromatin fragments, outside chromosome, chromosomal stickiness and micro nuclei were recorded. Insignificant increase in total mitotic aberrations percentage in all tested root tips treated with all concentrations of red pigment (1.23, 1.58, 1.63, 2.32 and 2.40%) compared with negative control (0.91%). There was a significant increase in total aberrations percentage after treatment with all concentrations (10, 15, 20 and 25%) of positive control (2.93, 3.00, 3.55 and 6.53 respectively) except (5%) which was insignificant (2.71%). From the previous data, this red pigment can be used as an alternative safe pigment in the food industry. Keywords Food Á RSM Á Citric acid Á Mitotic index Á Chromosomal aberrations Abbreviations RSM Response surface methodology MIRCEN Microbiological resources center PDA Potato dextrose agar medium YPD Yeast peptone dextrose medium CCD Central composite design ANOVA Analysis of variance DW Distilled water MI Mitotic index Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (

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In the present work, isolation and identification of some plant beneficial bacteria of vermicompost were conducted. A total of ten bacterial isolates were selected and characterized morphologically and biochemically. Molecular characterization of the bacterial isolates using 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis and phylogenic tree were conducted. According to the percentages of homology of 16S rRNA sequence with the closest NCBI strain, all of the ten bacterial isolates were belonged to six species (B. subtilis, B. atrophaeus, B. hemicentroti, B. velezensis, B. nakamurai and B. amyloliquefaciens) of genus Bacillus. Except isolate YFV05 which showed only 99.77% of homology with Bacillus subtilis strain NRRL NRS-744, all of the other isolates showed 100% homology to different strains of Bacillus spp. Generally, results revealed that all the ten bacterial isolates had different levels of in vitro antagonistic effect against four phytopathogenic fungi (Fusarium solani, Fusarium spp, Macrophomina phasolenia, and Rhizoctonia solani). In addition, treatment with YFV014, YFV05 and YFV012 isolates offered the highest values of vigor index (2166.0, 1775.0 and 1733.6), respectively. Finally, it could be concluded that plant beneficial bacteria might be isolate from vermicompost which in turn can be used to improve plant growth directly by production of plant growth-regulating hormones and enzymes and indirectly by controlling plant pathogens and other pests, thereby enhancing plant health and minimizing the yield loss of various crops.

Isolation, molecular identification and phylogenetic relationships of Rhizobial isolates nodulated some leguminous crops grown in Sohag governorate, were conducted in this present study. According to the 16S rDNA sequencing analysis, all of isolates were belong to genus Rhizobium which is commonly colonizing root nodules of different leguminous crops. Among of all the 5 bacterial isolates only EMR2 gave 100% of similarity with Rhizobium pusense strain NRCPB10 NR_116874.1 while, EMR1 isolate exhibited 99.58% of similarity with Rhizobium binae strain BLR195 NR_137242.1. The two isolates EMR4 and EMR5 showed (97.35 and 97.14%, respectively) similarity with the two bacterial strains Rhizobium aegyptiacum strain 1010 NR_137399.1 and Rhizobium bangladeshense strain BLR175 NR_137241.1. Finally the isolate EMR3 was similar to Rhizobium bangladeshense strain BLR175 NR_137241.1 with 96.88%. It was found that the 2 rhizobial species (Rhizobium bangladeshense and Rhizobium aegyptiacum) of Egyptian clover were shared the same clade. As well as it also shared Rhizobium binae of Lupine as a common ancestor. Finally, it was found that Rhizobium pusense of Peanut was the common ancestor with all other rhizobial isolates. These findings revealed that the conserved gene of these 4 Rhizobium isolates was derived from Rhizobium pusense. The obtained results showed that the genetic diversity of the rhizobial isolates that nodulate the leguminous crop at the chosen sites in the Sohag governorate is very low, which may be cause their low host specificity and ability to increase nodules formation in different leguminous crops, making them a promising bio-fertilizer for Egypt's sustainable crop production.