Trial for <i>cyp51A</i> gene variants to discriminate Japanese <i>Aspergillus oryzae</i> from <i>A. flavus</i>

Aspergillus section Flavi contains Aspergillus oryzae, an important species in Japanese traditional brewing, and also A. flavus, an aflatoxigenic species. Genetic discrimination of A. oryzae from A. flavus is very tough since they share over 99% sequence identity of their genome. Recently, cyp51A gene variants were reported to be a promising indicator to discriminate strains of A. oryzae from those of A. flavus. In this study, we applied the indicator for Japanese A. oryzae strains. Consequently, contradictory results were obtained for more than one Japanese A. oryzae strain.