Differentiation of aflatoxin-producing and non-producing strains of Aspergillus flavus group.
OBJECTIVE
Three conventional methods and a multiplex PCR procedure with a set of four primers (Quadruplex-PCR) were used to differentiate between aflatoxin-producing and non-producing strains of the Aspergillus flavus group.


RESULTS
By combining sets of primers for aflR, nor-1, ver-1 and omt-A genes of the aflatoxin biosynthetic pathway, Quadruplex-PCR showed that aflatoxinogenic strains gave a quadruplet pattern, indicating the presence of all the genes involved in the aflatoxin biosynthetic pathway which encode for functional products. Non-aflatoxinogenic strains gave varying results with one, two, three or four banding patterns. A banding pattern in three non-aflatoxinogenic strains resulted in non-differentiation between these and aflatoxinogenic strains.
Because conventional methods are time-consuming, further studies are needed to develop a rapid and objective technique that permits complete differentiation between aflatoxin-producing and non-producing strains of the A. flavus group.
Criseo
G
G
Department of Microbiological, Genetic and Molecular Sciences, University of Messina, Salita Sperone 31-98166 S. Agata, Messina, Italy. gcriseo@unime.it
Bagnara
A
A
Bisignano
G
G
D016604:Aflatoxin B1 / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics*; D001231:Aspergillus flavus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D005800:Genes, Fungal / Q000235:genetics; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction
D004271:DNA, Fungal; D016604:Aflatoxin B1