Conducted by faculty members Shaimaa Saeed Rahim, Dr. Muhannad Khalaf Mohammed Amin, and Dr. Mustafa Abdul-Wahab Najm from the College of Science (Department of Ecology ), the study was titled "Melanin production and biosynthetic pathways in *Aspergillus* section *Nigri* species cultured in liquid media." Published in the *Basrah Journal of Science*—which is indexed in Scopus (Clarivate)—the study revealed that melanin production varied among the species belonging to section *Nigri* when cultured in liquid media. The research involved the use of two types of inhibitors to determine the melanin biosynthetic pathway. The results indicated that *A. niger* produced the highest quantity of melanin in both culture media.