Detection of Aflatoxigenic Aspergillus flavus using a Probe-Based Real-Time QPCR Authors

Aflatoxin producing fungi, such as Aspergillus, are common food contaminants, and various methods exist to detect their presence. Early detection of food contaminants is important and essentially required to prevent food spoilage during storage or transport, and thus reduce the economic impact caused by rejection of consignments. In this study, we have developed a probe based qPCR for detecting toxin-producing molds using the Agilent Mx3005P QPCR instrument. Primers and probes detect the specific region of the O-methyltransferase (omt-1) gene of the aflatoxin metabolic pathway. The linear detection range of this assay was determined to be from 0.01 pg to 10 ng of fungal gDNA. This assay could be used for specific detection of other aflatoxigenic Aspergillus species from various food samples.