High tolerance and degradation of fungicides by fungal strains isolated from contaminated soils

The aim of this work was to isolate fungal strains from phytotoxic agricultural soils, screen them, categorize the most tolerant fungi to three fungicides, and identify them by a molecular approach. In this study, 28 fungal strains were isolated from phytotoxic agricultural soil with intensive use of pesticides. The capacity of fungi to resist and degrade different concentrations of carbendazim, captan, and zineb was determined by an exploratory multivariate analysis. <i>Actinomucor elegans</i> LBM 239 was identified as the most tolerant fungus to these fungicides, degrading a 86.62% of carbendazim after 7 days of treatment. In conclusion, <i>A. elegans</i> LBM 239 demonstrated the highest tolerance and capacity to biodegrade carbendazim, becoming a potential candidate for bioremediation of contaminated soils with carbendazim, captan, or zineb.