Abstract

Filamentous fungi comprehend a heterogeneous group of heterotrophic microorganisms that act as saprobes or parasites or, less frequently as symbionts living in association with other organisms. Water samples obtained seasonally from April 2010 to March 2011 at sixteen different sites of Dal Lake, Kashmir were serially diluted five folds followed by spread plate technique for the isolation of filamentous fungi, spreading 0.1 ml inoculum from the serial dilution tubes on the Petri dishes containing Rose-Bengal Streptomycin Agar medium. Twenty three (23) species of fungi namely Penicillium caseicolum, P. commune, P. chrysogenum, P. funiculosum, P. lilacinum, P. olivicolor, P. dimorphosporum, Penicillium sp. I, Penicillium sp. II,Penicillium sp. III, Penicillium sp. IV, Aspergillus flavus, A. fumigatus, A. japonicus, A. niger,  A. terreus, A. versicolor, A. wentii, Aspergillus sp. Fusarium sp. Rhizopus sp. Acremonium sp. and Mucor sp. belonging to five genera were recovered from the Lake water samples.Penicillium and Aspergillus were the most dominant genera with a total of 11 and 8 species respectively. The most prevalent species was P. chrysogenum with its occurrence at all sixteen (16) sampling stations and a highest total of seventeen species was recorded at site 16 (Pokhribal Nallah II).

Key words: Filamentous fungi, Dal Lake, serial dilution, qualitative.