MANUSCRIPT TITLE: Succession and catabolic properties of fungal community during composting of fruit waste at sub-tropical environment Authors: Syeda Abeer Danish1 | Tooba Haq2| Irum Liaqat3 | Saima Rubab4 | Mohammad Qureshi5 | Urooj Zafar1* 1Department of Microbiology, University of Karachi, Karachi-75270, Pakistan 2Centre of Environmental Studies, PCSIR labs Complex Karachi, Karachi-75280, Pakistan 3Microbiology lab, Department of Zoology, GC University, Lahore, Pakistan 4Department of Pharmacognosy, Lahore Pharmacy College, LMDC Lahore, Pakistan 5The Karachi Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, University of Karachi, Karachi-75270, Pakistan Correspondence: *Dr. Urooj Zafar Assistant Professor Department of Microbiology University of Karachi, University Road Karachi-75270, Pakistan. Email: [email protected] Figure 1 Pile of fruit waste at day zero set up for windrow composting on an unpaved ground Table 1 Details of representative fungal isolates identified through ITS sequencing Laboratory Morphotype Colonial Probable Confirmatory NCBI Code Characteristics Identification Identification Accession Number ADIB9 Whitish grey Conidiophore is present, Aspergillus Aspergillus MK139781 powdery colony with conidial spores are flavus flavus mycelial network at present at the tip of periphery. conidiophore arranged in parallel long chains.\ ADIB1 White filamentous Septate mycelium, Aspergillus Aspergillus MK139782 powdery colony green conidiophore fumigatus fumigatus covered entire plate. bearing smooth round It turned to green on conidia that are maturation arranged in chains. ADIB6 White velvety colony Broken conidiophore Aspergillus Aspergillus MK139783 with highly dense with brown rounded niger niger black spores conidial head. Smooth rounded conidia are present. ADIB3 White colony that Septate mycelium, Penicillium sp. Penicillium MK139784 turned into greyish chain like arrangement chrysogenum. white, powdery of conidia develop on medium size colony. conidiophores It appeared pale yellow on reverse side of culture ADI5 White cottony fuzzy Aseptate mycelium Mucor sp. Mucor fragilis MK139785 colony, swarms over bearing sporangiophore entire plate. having bulb like Mycelium can be sporangium. Oval observed. smooth spores in brown color can be observed. ADIF6 White floccose Bulb like sporangium Rhizopus sp. Rhizopus MK139786 threaded strands like, can be observed. oryzae large colony that Columella carrying covered entire plate. spores are visible under both 40x and 100x. Figure 2 Rarefaction curved obtained from species observed matured compost via Illumina MiSeq Table 2 Diversity analysis of mature compost data by Chao1, Shannon-index and Simpson of observed species via Illumina MiSeq Sample Chao1 Shannon- index Simpson Matured compost 47.0 1.209 0.368 Table 3 Description of Accession Numbers obtained from GenBank Accession Numbers Name of organism Released date MT340923 Uncultured fungus (Otu8) Apr 20, 2020 MT340924 Uncultured fungus (Otu9) Apr 20, 2020 MT340925 Uncultured fungus (Otu6) Apr 20, 2020 MT340926 Uncultured fungus (Otu7) Apr 20, 2020 MT340927 Uncultured Coprinellus (Otu4) Apr 20, 2020 MT340928 Uncultured Pezizomycetes (Otu5) Apr 20, 2020 MT340929 Uncultured Basidiomycota (Otu2) Apr 20, 2020 MT340930 Uncultured Coprinopsis (Otu3) Apr 20, 2020 MT340931 Uncultured Mortierella (Otu1) Apr 20, 2020 MT340932 Uncultured fungus (Otu47) Apr 20, 2020 MT340933 Uncultured fungus (Otu46) Apr 20, 2020 MT340934 Uncultured Fusarium (Otu45) Apr 20, 2020 MT340935 Uncultured fungus (Otu44) Apr 20, 2020 MT340936 Uncultured Emericella (Otu43) Apr 20, 2020 MT340937 Uncultured Myrmecridium (Otu42) Apr 20, 2020 MT340938 Uncultured Monascus (Otu41) Apr 20, 2020 MT340939 Uncultured Dactylella (Otu40) Apr 20, 2020 MT340940 Uncultured Trichocomaceae Apr 20, 2020 (Otu29) MT340941 Uncultured Zopfiella (Otu28) Apr 20, 2020 MT340942 Uncultured Arthrobotrys (Otu25) Apr 20, 2020 MT340943 Uncultured Preussia (Otu24) Apr 20, 2020 MT340944 Uncultured fungus (Otu27) Apr 20, 2020 MT340945 Uncultured fungus (Otu26) Apr 20, 2020 MT340946 Uncultured Sordariales (Otu21) Apr 20, 2020 MT340947 Uncultured fungus (Otu20) Apr 20, 2020 MT340948 Uncultured fungus (Otu23) Apr 20, 2020 MT340949 Uncultured Basidiomycota (Otu22) Apr 20, 2020 MT340950 Uncultured Mortierella (Otu14) Apr 20, 2020 MT340951 Uncultured Schizothecium (Otu15) Apr 20, 2020 MT340952 Uncultured fungus (Otu16) Apr 20, 2020 MT340953 Uncultured fungus (Otu17) Apr 20, 2020 MT340954 Uncultured Scutellinia (Otu10) Apr 20, 2020 MT340955 Uncultured Coprinus (Otu11) Apr 20, 2020 MT340956 Uncultured Mortierella (Otu12) Apr 20, 2020 MT340957 Uncultured fungus (Otu13) Apr 20, 2020 MT340958 Uncultured Penicillium (Otu18) Apr 20, 2020 MT340959 Uncultured fungus (Otu19) Apr 20, 2020 MT340960 Uncultured Aspergillus (Otu38) Apr 20, 2020 MT340961 Uncultured fungus (Otu39) Apr 20, 2020 MT340962 Uncultured Trichoderma (Otu36) Apr 20, 2020 MT340963 Uncultured Rhizomucor (Otu37) Apr 20, 2020 MT340964 Uncultured Coprinopsis (Otu34) Apr 20, 2020 MT340965 Uncultured fungus (Otu35) Apr 20, 2020 MT340966 Uncultured fungus (Otu32) Apr 20, 2020 MT340967 Uncultured Mortierella (Otu33) Apr 20, 2020 MT340968 Uncultured fungus (Otu30) Apr 20, 2020 MT340969 Uncultured Basidiomycota (Otu31) Apr 20, 2020 .