Detection of Aspergillus flavus using PCR method from fungus infested food grains collected from local market

Abstract

India is an agrarian country two-thirds of its population is engaged directly or indirectly in agricultural activities. In recent years many food borne pathogens have become major threat to public health and safety.  The consumption of contaminated food grains or products has been considered to be the leading source of human food borne infections. Surveillance studies have provided data and a better understanding into the existence and spread of food borne pathogens. Aflatoxins produced by Aspergillus species are important toxic secondary metabolites known for their impacts on animal and human health, and their effects on the economic loss of key grain and nut crops. Several molecular techniques (including multilocus sequence typing, pulsed field gel electrophoresis, DNA sequencing, multiplex PCR, RAPD, and many more) are available for detection and characterisation of pathogenic microorganisms from food samples, which provide reliable epidemiological data for tracing the source of infections. Present study highlights the possible use of PCR technique, in surveillance and detection of A. flavus in fungal infested food grains. The current study was carried out to elucidate the infestation of aflatoxin producing fungus on both kharif (groundnut, rice and maize) and Rabi crops (wheat, gram and soybean). Total 15 samples were collected randomly from local market of Gwalior (M.P). Out of fifteen only nine (60%) samples were found to be Aspergillus positive. Seven samples were infested by Aspergillus flavus and two by A. niger. The selected fungal isolates were identified by amplifying aflR gene of A. flavus in Thermo Cycler.