as mycelia in a liquid culture of potato dextrose broth (PDB) (Difco,USA), prepared as per the manufacturers instructions. Aliquots of the media (250 ml)were decanted into individual 1000-ml Erlenmeyer flask, closed with cotton wool stoppers placed over the flask mouths, and then autoclaved at 121 and 1.4 kg for 15 min.
After the flask cooled down, the fungal mycelium on the culture plates was cut in disks, 5 mm in diameter, and placed in the center of the broth-cultured flask.
The cotton wool stoppers were then wrapped with aluminum foil, sealed with parafilm, and incubated at 30+2 (12-h-darkness/12-h-light cycle) on a rotary shaker for 14 days at 120 rpm for the culturing of