Clinical Microbiology: Open Access

Fingerprinting of Aspergillus section Flavi associated with groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) and aflatoxin production in Eastern Ethiopia

2^nd International Conference on Medical and Clinical Microbiology

July 16-17, 2018 Melbourne, Australia

Abdi Mohammed

Haramaya University, Ethiopia

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Clin Microbiol

Abstract:

Aspergillus species cause aflatoxin contamination on seeds, becoming a health threat in agricultural products and leading to commodity rejection by domestic and international markets. Novel technologies for aflatoxin control target specific DNA sequences of Aspergillus, thus, identifying the predominant fungal genotypes that colonize groundnut seeds is essential. In this study 184 Aspergillus isolates were obtained from groundnut seeds from eastern Ethiopia, were analyzed for aflatoxin production by Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography (UPLC) and fingerprinted using 23 insertion/deletions (InDel) within the aflatoxin-biosynthesis gene cluster. Analysis of genetic distances by Neighbor Joining (NJ), Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA) and structure clustered the isolates into four main groups. Group-1: The largest had 88% of the A. flavus, including all A. flavus L-strains and A. tamarii and the highest aflatoxin B1 producer was A. flavus (N1436) (77.9 ?g/mL). Group-2: Contained 21 isolates, 52.4% of A. flavus S-strains and 47.6% of A. flavus. Group-3: Primarily included A. parasiticus (87.9%); among A. parasiticus isolates, 20 produced aflatoxins B and G, with up to 50.3 ?g/mL of G1, whilst nine produced only B aflatoxins. Group-4: Was represented by only six A. flavus, four of which were S-strains able to produce the main four aflatoxins. All Aspergillus isolates tested produced aflatoxins. This is the first report on aflatoxin production and genotypes of Aspergillus present in groundnut in eastern Ethiopia. Predominant genotypes were identified as candidates for DNA sequencing and to generate an exclusive database of Ethiopian Aspergillus genomes for the development of effective aflatoxin control strategies in groundnut.

Biography :

E-mail: abdi.mohammed22@yahoo.com