Isolation and Molecular Identification of Fungal Isolates from Stored Cereals Using PCR-RFLP Method

Abstract

Contamination of grain cereals with toxic metabolites of fungi, both pathogenic and saprotrophic, is one of the particularly important problems in global agriculture. The aim of the current study was molecular identification of fungi isolates from different samples of stored cereals and evaluate the utility of PCR-RFLP of the ITS region technique. The results established that the most abundant species were found belonging to Aspergillus genera (50%), followed by Fusarium spp. (19%) and Penicillium spp. (19%). Aspergillus flavus was the most frequent species, representing almost 40% of the isolates belonging to the genus Aspergillus. Also were identified as Aspergilus versicolor, Aspergilus ruber and Aspergilus niger by molecular analysis representing 10% each.