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During a survey of phyllosphere and non-rhizosphere soil fungi of orange plantations in the Assiut area, Egypt, several isolates of species of Aspergillus belonging to the section Usti were isolated at 25°C. These were identified using phenotypic and genotypic characters as Aspergillus porphyreostipitatus and Aspergillus carlsbadensis. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first global records since their original descriptions and indicate their probable wide distribution. The strains of both species could grow at 37°C (a character contrasting to that of the original description of A. carlsbadensis), but both were not able to grow on CYA at 5°C or 45°C or to produce acid on creatine. It is interesting to report that both strains produced the urease enzyme (however weakly in A. porphyreostipitatus) and failed to grow on G25N at 25°C, characters not examined in the original descriptions.

During the mycological analysis of skin and nail samples taken from patients with onychomycosis and tineas in Assiut city, it is interesting to report that yeast fungi were the main causal agents being cultured from 45.79% of total cases. In general, 21 species of yeast were isolated. Some of these are reported for the first time from clinical specimens. From the literature available up-to-date around the world, this study reports for the first time Saccharomycopsis fibuligera as the causal agent of four clinical cases: two onychomycoses, one tinea capitis and one tinea amiantacea. Also, it is reported here the second record for Trichosporon dohaense from a case of onychomycosis of a 40-year-old woman (after its original description in 2009 by Taj-Aldeen et al. J Clin Microbiol 47: 1791). Candida galli was also reported for the first time from clinical specimen (tinea unguium) in 2014 by Galán-Sánchez et al. Mycopathol 178: 303, and this study reports the second case of onychomycosis by C. galli. These strains were identified on the basis of their phenotypic, biochemical, physiological and genotypic features. Strains and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) gene sequences of these species are deposited at Assiut University Mycological Center Culture Collection (AUMC) and National Center for Biotechnological Information (NCBI) respectively.

An extensive survey of soil mycobiota on citrus and grapevine plantations in Sahel-Saleem City, Assiut Governorate, Egypt was carried out using the dilution-plate method and 2 isolation media at 25°C. Sixty-four genera and 195 species of filamentous fungi and 10 genera and 13 species of yeasts were recovered. A higher diversity (number of genera and species) and gross total counts were recovered from citrus than from grapevine soil. The peak of filamentous fungi recovered from both soils was found to be in February. Aspergillus (45 species) was the most dominant genus; A. ochraceus predominated in citrus plantations, while A. niger and A. aculeatus in grapevine. The Penicillium count came second after Aspergillus in citrus (23 species) and after Aspergillus and Fusarium in grapevine (11 species). Penicillium citrinum, P. ochrochloron and P. olsonii were more common in citrus plantations, but they were replaced by P. oxalicum in grapevine soil. Fusarium (19 species) was represented in 88.9-100% of both soils on both media; F. solani predominated in both soils, while F. incarnatum came next in citrus, and F. babinda and F. oxysporum in grapevine. Humicola (3 species) with the dominant H. fuscoatra was recorded in 61.1-83.3% of soil of both plantations, while Talaromyces (with T. purpureogenus followed by T. pinophilus being the most common) was recorded in 83.3-100% on DRBC and 38.9-50% on DYM from the soil of plantations of both crops. Volutella (5 species) was common in citrus but missing from grapevine soil. The present study reveals that hyaline fungi predominated over dark-coloured ones. Yeasts comprised only minor proportions in both soils (maximum 0.5%). They showed their peak in the soil of citrus plantations in April and in grapevine in February. All species were recovered in one or two samples only. Diutina catenulata, Debaryomyces hansenii, Galactomyces (3 species), Hanseniaspora occidentalis, Kluyveromyces marxianus, Meyerozyma caribbica, and Schwanniomyces pseudopolymorphus were encountered in citrus only, while Cryptococcus laurentii, Pichia kudriavzevii, Meyerozyma guilliermondii and Rhodotorula sp. in grapevine only. Physiological and growth characteristics were obtained for most of the recovered yeasts.