a b s t r a c tThe objective of this study was to isolate the potential fungal isolates have the ability for gluconic acid production by using some agro industrial byproducts as sugarcane molasses, banana-must and grape-must. The effect of gamma-irradiation on the most potent isolates and the fermentation conditions as pH, incubation temperature and incubation period was also investigated. Results showed that the most potential fungal isolates were Aspergillus niger, Penicillium puberulum and Penicillium frequentans whereas their gluconic acid production was 62.17, 56.25 and 39.69 g/L, respectively on Czapek's Dox media at 28 ± 1 C, pH 6 for 7 days fermentation period. Irradiation of the three most potential isolates at 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 kGy doses of gamma ray showed that 0.1 kGy dose caused an increase in gluconic acid production whereas it was 69.35, 60.17 and 40.31 g/L by the three potential isolates respectively. Data showed that utilization of sugarcane molasses, banana-must and grape-must as a sole carbon source in gluconic acid production by the three potential (0.1 kGy) irradiated isolates at pH 6, 30 C for a 7 days incubation period caused increasing in gluconic acid production whereas the productivity of the three (0.1 kGy) irradiated isolates (A. niger, P. puberulum and P. frequentans) was 69.87, 63.14 and 51.28 g/L by utilizing sugarcane molasses, 61.28, 56.37, 47.15 g/L by utilizing banana-must and 54.25, 52.75 and 44.75 g/L by utilizing grape-must.

G REEN synthetic strategies have been receiving a great interest for metal nanoparticles synthesis. In the current study, extracellular synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using the cell filtrate of the endophytic fungus, Alternaria tenuissima AUMC 13621 isolated from healthy leaves of Ruta graveolens plant, was achieved. The biosynthesized AgNPs were characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering analysis (DLS), and fourier transform infra-red (FT-IR), The UV-visible spectrum shows a maximum absorption peak at 416nm. TEM photography showed the spherical shape of AgNPs with an average size 9.8nm. FT-IR indicates bounding of silver nanoparticles with the supernatant molecules of A. tenuissima and provides evidence for the presence of proteins and biomolecules responsible for reduction of Ag + to Ag 0 , capping and stabilizing the synthesized AgNPs. Parametric optimization for the biosynthesis process showed maximum absorbance of 400-408nm at pH-12, 70 o C using 1mM AgNO 3 concentration. By studying the effect of gamma irradiation on AgNPs biosynthesis, the results showed that, the obtained peak became more sharper and narrower moreover, the absorbance intensity increased by increasing irradiation dose from 0.5 to 3.0kGy. The synthesized Ag NPs have a potent antimicrobial activity to some tested pathogenic bacterial strains and Candida albicans ATCC1023. Additionally, they had excellent free radical scavenging activity. The AgNPs antioxidant activity at 100µg/ ml was of 65.99% inhibition that was close to the result obtained for ascorbic acid (67.39%).