## 3 Results and Discussion
### Deteriorating Fungi  
The 14 fungal species isolated from the deteriorated wooden objects and identified by morphological characteristics are listed in Table 3. Eight species belonged to the _Aspergillus_ genera and six species belonged to _Penicillium_ one. The most frequently deterioration-causing fungi species found in the current study were _Aspergillus flavus_ and _A. terreus_, in line with previous studies. For example, [PERSON] et al. [108] isolated _A. flavus_ and _A. terreus_ (together with _A. fumigatus_, _A. niger_, and _P. chrysogenum_) from a Nabataean wooden coffin, Jordon. _Aspergillus_ spp. and _Penicillium_ spp. were the most dominant genera isolated from the storage area of [PERSON]'s Solar Boat and wooden frames of the Stucco window in the Islamic Art Museum [109]. _Aspergillus flavus_ and _A. terreus_ together with other fungal species (_A. fumigatus_, _A. niger_, _Cladosporium cladosporoides_, _Fusarium oxysporum_ and _Trichoderma longibrachitatum_) were isolated by [PERSON] et al. [24] from 35 archaeological pharaonic wooden artifacts. [PERSON] et al. [110] isolated _A. flavus_ and _A. niger_ from ancient funeral masks in Saqqara, Egypt, which revealed various deterioration aspects (discoloration, cracks and stains). Finally, twenty-six fungal species from the wooden objects were isolated and identified by [PERSON] et al. [37], and the four most frequent species belonged to the genus _Aspergillus_. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c} \hline \hline
**Fungal Species** & **Total Count** & **Relative Density \%** \\ \hline _Aspergillus clavatus_ & 6 & 3.84 \\ _Aspergillus flavus_ & 34 & 21.79 \\ _Aspergillus fumigatus_ & 12 & 7.69 \\ _Aspergillus niger_ & 15 & 9.61 \\ _Aspergillus ochtraces_ & 4 & 2.56 \\ _Aspergillus parasiticus_ & 8 & 5.12 \\ _Aspergillus terreus_ & 24 & 15.38 \\ _Aspergillus versicolor_ & 3 & 1.92 \\ \hline _Total Aspergillus spp._ & **106** & **67.95** \\ \hline _Penicillium citrium_ & 13 & 8.33 \\ _Penicillium chrysogenum_ & 10 & 6.41 \\ _Penicillium glabrum_ & 5 & 3.20 \\ _Penicillium multicolor_ & 6 & 3.84 \\ _Penicillium capsultatum_ & 7 & 4.48 \\ _Penicillium oxalicum_ & 9 & 5.76 \\ \hline _Total Penicillin spp._ & **50** & **32.05** \\ \hline \hline
**Total count** & **156** & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Total counts, relative density (%) and frequency of occurrence of fungal species isolated from [PERSON]’s Second Boat. In bold the sum of the fungal species for each genera. Identification of the Selected Deteriorating Fungal Isolates by Metagenomic Analyses  
The isolate belonging to the _Aspergillus flavus_ and the other isolate belonging to the _Aspergillus cereus_ with the highest cellulose activity were identified using molecular biology methods based on ITS1 and ITS4 region sequences. Sequences of PCR products were aligned with the reference sequences on GenBank, identified and deposited with accession numbers on NCBI. Their identification was confirmed to be _Aspergillus flavus_ (accession number PQ226812) and _Aspergillus cereus_ (accession number PQ227217). Their phylogenetic Neighbour Joining (NJ) trees are shown in Figures 6 and 7. The closely related species were found using the p-distance model with the Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis (MEGA) software version11 [111]. The results found here are in line previous studies. For example, [PERSON] et al. [112] isolated and identified morphologically and molecularly different species of white, brown and soft rot fungi in the structural woods of eight historical churches in Chiloe, Chile, causing decay in these historical buildings. [PERSON] et al. [113] also isolated several species of _Ascomycota_ soft rot and _Basidiumycta_ fungi that attacked wood, leaving a weak and vulnerable wood structure.