Abstract

Species of the genus Aspergillus are commonly known to be responsible for the degradation of tanned leather. In this study five species of Aspergillus (A. fumigatus, A. niger, A. flavus and A. ochraceopetaliformis) were isolated from tanned leather pieces of cow, goat, sheep and buffalo respectively. Among the isolated species A. ochraceopetaliformis was the first time reported from Pakistan. These isolated fungal strains were initially identified by their morphological and microscopic studies (conidial formation, conidial shape, size, colour, vesicle shape etc.) and then by means of molecular tools including genomic DNA isolation, PCR amplifications, genome sequencing and sequence analysis. Sequences were submitted to NCBIGenB ank and accession numbers were assigned by NCBI. Phylogenetic analysis was also performed in order to calculate the percentage similarity as well as variation among the isolated species.