Microbiol. Res.
(1994) 149, 163 -165
Isolation of cellulose-decomposing fungi from damaged manuscripts
and documents
A. Y. Abdel-Mallek
Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt
Accepted: January 14, 1994
Abstract
A study of one hundred and sixty-three damaged manu-
scripts and documents preserved in Archives of Tax
Department in Assiut city (Egypt) has revealed twenty-one
genera and thirty-three species in addition to one variety of
cellulose decomposig fungi. Aspergillus niger and A.jlavus
had the highest frequency of occurrence and were isolated
from 70.5 and 52.1 % of the samples examined, respective-
ly. In addition, Alternaria alternata, Stachybotrys charta-
rum and Cladosporium herbarum were isolated in moderate
frequency.
Key words: Cellulose decomposition - manuscripts
archives
Introduction
Cellulose decomposing fungi may cause serious dam-
age to documents and manuscripts preserved for long
periods (Aleksi-Meskhishvili 1986; Robledo and
Moretti 1986; Abdel-Hamid and Ouf 1990). In the
mycological laboratory of Assiut University, consi-
derable attention has been focused on isolation of
cellulose decomposing fungi from soil (Moubasher
and Mazen 1990), from air (Swelim 1978), from seeds
and grains (EI-Hissy et al. 1981), from water and mud
samples (EI-Hissy 1979; Badran 1986; Bagy et al.
1989); from animal and bird pens (Moharram et al.
1987), and from dung (Bagy et al. 1985). None of the
previous investigations pays attention to isolation of
cellulose degrading fungi from deteriorated papers.
Therefore, this investigation represents an attempt to
identify fungal species which damage documents and
manuscripts in Egypt.
Corresponding author: A. Y. Abdel-Mallek
Microbiological
Research
© Gustav Fischer Verlag Jena
Material and methods
One hundred and sixty-three manuscripts and docu-
ments dated back to 1950 AD were chosen from
Archives of Tax Department in Assiut city (Egypt)
and used in the present investigation. These manu-
scripts and documents were stored in files at room
temperature and were characterized by the presence
of decayed areas. About 1 cm 2 from each manuscript
or document were collected in sterilized Petri dishes
and transferred immediately to the laboratory. Each
sample was washed several times by sterilized distil-
led water, dried between two sterilized filter papers
and then plated on selective medium. Eggins and
Pugh's (1962) agar medium (NH 4hS04, 0.5 g;
L. asparagine, 0.5 g; KH 2 P0 4, 1 g; KCI, 0.5 g;
MgS0 4 · 7H 2 0, 0.2 g, CaCI 2 , 0.1 g; yeast extract,
0.5 g; agar agar, 20 g, distilled water, 1 L) was used
for isolation of cellulose decomposing fungi. Rose
bengal (66 Ilg ml- 1) was added as a bacteriostatic
agent. The plates were incubated at 28 ± 1°C for 10
days. The developed colonies were examined, coun-
ted and transferred to proper diagnostic media for
identification. The following references were used for
identification of fungal genera and species: Raper
and Thorn (1949), Raper and Fennell (1965) and
Domsch et al. (1980).
Results
The results presented in Table 1 demonstrate the
cellulose decomposing fungi isolated from one hun-
dred and sixty-three samples of damaged manu-
scripts and documents dated back to 1950 A.D.
Microbiol. Res. 149 (1994) 2 163
Table 1. Number of incidences of isolation (out of 163 Twenty-one genera and thirty-three species in
samples) and percentage frequency of occurrence of fungal addition to one variety of Aspergillus flavus were
genera and species recovered from damaged manuscripts collected in the present study. With regard to the
and documents spectrum of species Aspergillus contributed the broa-
Genera and species NCI % OR dest distribution (seven species and one variety). The
Aspergillus 126 77.3 H genera Chaetomium, Curvularia, Drechslera, Emeri-
A. niger van Tieghem 115 70.5 H cella and Penicillium were represented by two species
A. flavus Link 85 52.1 H each. The remaining genera were represented by only
A.flavus var. columnaris Raper & Fennell 34 20.9 L One species. It must be mentioned that some Penicil-
A. ochraceus Wilhelm 20 12.3 L lium species cannot be identified due to being badly
A.fumigatus Fresenius 19 11.7 VL contaminated by other species and their isolation in
A. tamarii Kita 7 4.3 VL pure cultures failed completely.
A. sydowii (Bain. & Sart.) 2 1.2 VL
Aspergillus was the most frequent genus and was
Thorn & Church
A. ustus (Bain.) Thorn & Church 1 0.6 VL found in 77.3% of the samples. A. niger was the most
Altf!rnaria alternata (Fr.) Keissler 75 46.0 M commOn species and represented in 70.5% of the
Stachybotrys chartarum 46 28.2 M investigated samples. A. flavus was encountered in
(Ehrenb. Lindt) Hughes 52.1 %. A.flavus var. columnaris and A.ochraceus
Cladosporium herbarum 44 27.0 M had a low frequency and were isolated from 20.9%
(Pers.) Link ex Fries and 12.3% of the samples, respectively. The remain-
Emericella 29 17.8 L ing four species were isolated in a very low incidence:
E. nidulans (Eidam) Vuillemin 26 16.0 L A.fumigatus (11.7%), A. tamarii (4.3%), A. sydowii
E. quadrilineata 3 1.8 VL (1.2%) and A. ustus (0.6%).
(Thorn & Raper) Benjamin Alternaria alternata, Stachybotrys chartarum and
Chaetomium 28 17.2 L
L Cladosporium herbarum occurred in moderate fre-
C. globosum Kunze ex Fries 27 16.6
C. olivaceum Cooke & Ellis 1 0.6 VL quency, and were recorded in 46.0%, 28.2% and
Scopulariopsis 27 16.6 L 27.0% of the examined samples, respectively.
S. brevicaulis (Sacc.) Bainier 25 15.3 L Emericella was represented by two species viz.,
S. brumptii Salvanet-Duval 2 1.2 VL E. nidulans and E. quadrilineata and they were en-
Drechslera 16 9.8 VL countered in 16.0% and 1.8% of the samples,
D. spicifera (Bain.) von Arx 13 8.0 VL respectively.
D. halodes (Drechsl.) Subram. & Jain 3 1.8 VL Two species of the genus Chaetomium were isola-
Penicillium 15 9.2 VL ted. C. globosum was the most commOn and was
P. chrysogenum Thorn 10 6.1 VL represented in 16.6% of the samples, while C. oliva-
P. funiculosum Thorn 2 1.2 VL
ceum was isolated from only One out of 163 samples.
Penicillium spp. 5 3.1 VL
Curvularia 12 7.4 VL Scopulariopsis was of similar incidence and enCOUn-
C. lunata (Wakker) Boedijn 11 6.8 VL tered in16.6% of the samples. It was represented by
C. ovoidae (Hiroe & Watan) Muntanola 1 0.6 VL two species, S. brevicaulis (15.3% of the samples) and
Paecilomyces inflatus 11 6.8 VL S. brumptii (1.2%).
(Burnside) Carmichael The remaining fungal species listed in Table 1 (24
Rhizopus stolonifer 8 4.9 VL species) showed a very low frequency of occurrence
(Ehrenb. ex. Fries) Lind (less than 12.0% of the examined samples).
Gliocladium roseum Bain. 7 4.3 VL
Botryotrichum atrogriseum van Beyma 5 3.1 VL
Phoma herbarum Westend. 5 3.1 VL Discussion
Beauveria bassiana (Bals) Vuillemin 3 1.8 VL
Acremonium strictum W. Gams 2 1.2 VL
Circinella muscae (Sorok) Bed. & Detoni 1 0.6 VL In the present study, twenty-one genera and thirty-
Stemphylium botryosum Wallr. 1 0.6 VL three species in addition to One variety were isolated
Trichothecium roseum (Pers.) Link 1 0.6 VL from One hundred and sixty-three samples of dama-
Ulocladium atrum Preuss 1 0.6 VL ged manuscripts and documents collected from Ar-
chives of Tax Department in Assiut city (Egypt).
NCI Number of cases of isolation. These samples are preserved for long periods (about
OR Occurrence remarks.
High occurrence; more than 50%. 40 years ago).
H
M Moderate occurrence; 25%-50%. Fungi recorded in this investigation are classified
L Low occurrence; 12% -24%. into four categories according to their frequency of
VL Very low occurrence; less than 12%. occurrence: high, moderate, low and very low. Asper-

164 Microbiol. Res. 149 (1994) 2

gillus was the most frequent genus, and its species
A. niger and A.flavus had a high frequency. The
preceding two species have been frequently report-
ed as cellulose-decomposers (Flannigan 1970; Ste-
wart and Walsh 1972). In addition, Aspergillus was
previously identified from documents of the Ar-
chivo General de la Nacion at Mexico city and
was found in high frequency (Robledo and Moret-
ti 1986). In Egypt, Abdel-Hamid and Ouf (1990)
isolated twenty-two species belonging to 14 genera
from an old manuscript dated back to 1730 A.D.;
the dominant genera were Aspergillus, Penicillium,
Chaetomium and Macrophomina.
The moderate frequency category contained three
species: Alternaria alternata, Stachybotrys chartarum
and Cladosporium herbarum; these species were pre-
viously recorded as cellulose-decomposers (Badran
1986; Moubasher and Mazen 1991). The low fre-
quency class comprised species with a frequency
between 12% and 24%. This group contained five
species, Aspergillus flavus var. columnaris, A. ochra-
ceus, Chaetomium globosum and Emericella nidulans.
Chaetomium was also isolated from deteriorated
documents by Robledo and Moretti (1986). Alt-
hough the preceding species were grouped in the low
frequency class in this study, they were reported to
have a strong or very strong cellulolytic activity
(Moustafa and Sharkas 1982). It is most probable
that competitive saprophytic ability of a given species
or group of species to colonize a cellulose containing
substrate rather than their cellulolytic activity deter-
mine their contribution to the process of cellulose
decay (Tribe 1966; Moustafa and Sharkas 1982).
Twenty four species were of very low frequency.
However, four of them, Aspergillus jumigatus,
A. ustus, A. tamarii and Penicillium juniculosum are
well known strong cellulose-decomposers as reported
by Moustafa and Sharkas (1982).
It must be mentioned that all fungal genera and
species recorded in the present investigation were
previously isolated on cellulose medium from differ-
ent sources in Egypt (Swelim 1978; EI-Hissy 1979;
EI-Hissy et al. 1981; Bagy et al. 1985, 1989; Badran
1986; Moharram et al. 1987; Moubasher and Mazen
1990).
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