The aflatoxin producer Aspergillus flavus and the koji mold Aspergillus oryzae are morphologically similar species that belong to the Aspergillus section Flavi. We used amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) to differentiate these two species. In this study, we tested thirteen A. flavus, nine A. oryzae, and three A. flavus var. columnaris strains. DNA fragment profiles amplified with eac...

miR169 is a conserved microRNA (miRNA) family involved in plant development and stress-induced responses. However, how miR169 functions in rice immunity remains unclear. Here, we show that miR169 acts as a negative regulator in rice immunity against the blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae by repressing the expression of nuclear factor Y-A (NF-YA) genes. The accumulation of miR169 was significantly ...

Multidrug-resistant bacteria cause severe infections in hospitals and communities. Development of new drugs to combat resistant microorganisms is needed. Natural products of microbial origin are the source of most currently available antibiotics. We hypothesized that random mutagenesis of Aspergillus oryzae would result in secretion of antibacterial compounds. To address this hypothesis, we dev...

The rice (Oryza sativa) gene Xa27 confers resistance to Xanthomonas oryzae pv oryzae, the causal agent of bacterial blight disease in rice. Sequence analysis of the deduced XA27 protein provides little or no clue to its mode of action, except that a signal-anchor-like sequence is predicted at the amino (N)-terminal region of XA27. As part of an effort to characterize the biochemical function of...

An 8.1-kb DNA fragment from Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae that contains six open reading frames (ORF) was cloned. The ORF encodes proteins similar to flagellar proteins FlhB, FlhA, FlhF, and FliA, plus two proteins of unknown function, ORF234 and ORF319, from Bacillus subtilis and other organisms. These ORF have a similar genomic organization to those of their homologs in other bacteria. Theflh...

BACKGROUND Kojic acid (5-Hydroxy-2-(hydroxymethyl)-4-pyrone) is one of the major secondary metabolites in Aspergillus oryzae. It is widely used in food, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. The production cost, however, is too high for its use in many applications. Thus, an efficient and cost-effective kojic acid production process would be valuable. However, little is known about the complete set o...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the production of flavor compounds from olive mill waste by microbial fermentation of Rhizopus oryzae and Candida tropicalis. Olive mill waste fermentations were performed in shake and bioreactor cultures. Production of flavor compounds from olive mill waste was followed by Gas Chromatography-Mass spectrometry, Gas chromatography- olfactometry and Sp...

beta-Xylosidase secreted by the shoyu koji mold, Aspergillus oryzae, is the key enzyme responsible for browning of soy sauce. To investigate the role of beta-xylosidase in the brown color formation, a major beta-xylosidase, XylA, and its encoding gene were characterized. beta-Xylosidase XylA was purified to homogeneity from culture filtrates of A. oryzae KBN616. The optimum pH and temperature o...

Aspergillus oryzae is widely used for the industrial production of enzymes. In A. oryzae metabolism, transporters appear to play crucial roles in controlling the flux of molecules for energy generation, nutrients delivery, and waste elimination in the cell. While the A. oryzae genome sequence is available, transporter annotation remains limited and thus the connectivity of metabolic networks is...

Root mat of cucumbers and tomatoes has previously been shown to be caused by Agrobacterium radiobacter strains harboring a root-inducing Ri plasmid (pRi). Nine other pRi-harboring alpha-Proteobacteria have subsequently been isolated from root mat-infected crops. Fatty acid profiling and partial 16S rRNA sequence analysis identified three of these strains as being in the genus Ochrobactrum, five...