**4.1 Insulation of fungi from biodeteriorated fabrics**

To obtain the biodeteriorated fabric, source of the strains used in this work, samples of 100% cotton (plain weave fabric), 5 cm × 5 cm in size, previously moistened with distilled water, were exposed to accelerate the process of biodeterioration. They remained for 30 days in an indoor environment, under conditions of high relative humidity. It should be noted that this type of fabric is used in the hospital field as stretchers and oxygen tube covers, sheets, both (shirt and pants), etc. At the end of the exposure time of the samples, they were surficially decontaminated to orient the isolation to the fungal species that were growing in the fabric. According to the observations made, the isolates that presented the highest cellulolytic activity (halo ≥0.4 cm) were found to be used as bioindicators: *Aspergillus*

and *Cladosporium*, respectively. On the other hand, a strain of *Chaetomium globosum* (KU936228) was also selected as a bioindicator considering that it is widely known for its cellulolytic activity (**Figure 4**).
