Occurrence of molds (fungi) in indoor tissue culture laboratories

Laboratory indoor environments play important roles in human health and laboratory experiments. Contamination wastes time and resources as well as posing serious risks to human health due to toxicity. Fungi (molds), like other microorganisms are ubiquitous in distribution and in complexity towards causing human diseases. However, the awareness of the number and nature of molds in any giving laboratory per time will help to better strategize their control mechanisms. The aim of this study was to evaluate some tissue culture laboratory surfaces and indoor air for fungal contamination in some selected Laboratories in the Federal Capital territory (FCT), Abuja, Nigeria. Using swab and air sampling procedures, fungi were isolated from plantlets, tables, wall and the air of the laboratory rooms of fifteen tissue culture laboratories and cultured on Streptomycin-supplemented Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA). The discrete colonies that developed were identified using morphological and microscopical characterization. The fungal species isolated from these laboratories include; Aspergillus niger, Alterneria sp., Aspergillus terreus, Aspergillus flavus, Cladosporium sp., Rhizopus sp., Penicillium sp., Fusarium sp. and Geotrichum sp. The results shown that most of the laboratories were highly contaminated and that Aspergillus was the predominant fungal genera and A. niger recorded the highest overal occurence. Since using plant tissue culture techniques holds promise in substantially augmenting the number of novel cultivars and genotypes of many fruit crops, adhering to standard operating procedures is highly recommended in the studied areas and Nigeria as a whole.