It is thus necessary to eliminate or reduce the presence of mycotoxins in the food chain. An important step in controlling contaminants in the food production chain is by identifying food-borne fungi. The conventional methods used for the detection of fungal contamination are based on phenotypic and physiological characteristics that make use of standard culture and biochemical/serological tests. However, these

methods are very time-consuming, laborious and do not detect mycotoxins. Recently, a variety of molecular methods have DZNeP been used for fungal pathogen identification and for their potential to produce mycotoxins [5]. Molecular methods were used for Aspergillus species differentiation using Southern blot hybridization assays [6] and PCR-based restriction fragment length polymorphisms [7]. Most assays that have been developed included PCR-based methods that exploited the highly conserved ribosomal RNA gene sequences for the design of species-specific primers [8] as well as generic PCR detection assays

developed for genes involved in the biosynthesis of some mycotoxins [9, 10]. Although these assays are an improvement compared to conventional methods, the overall throughput is still limited. Only a limited number of diagnostic regions can be identified for a single organism at a time. If all potentially mycotoxigenic fungi must be included, these assays become laborious Glutamate dehydrogenase and expensive. MM-102 manufacturer The use of integrated platforms that Selleckchem FG-4592 combine identification and typing methods for several fungi would facilitate the rapid and accurate identification of possible mycotoxigenic fungi in food commodities. The microarray technique allows the rapid and

parallel characterization of a range of organisms and has the intrinsic ability to perform multiplexed and low-volume biological assays. This technique has been increasingly used for diagnostic purposes as it has the ability to detect more than one parameter at a time [11, 12]. Leinberger et al. [13] exploited the polymorphisms of the internal transcribed regions in the ribosomal RNA cassette for the microarray-based detection and identification of Candida and Aspergillus species. In a similar experiment, DeSantis et al. [14] generated a 62358-probe oligonucleotide of small subunit ribosomal RNA (ssu rRNA) for the detection of 18 different orders of microbes from environmental samples and novel variants exhibiting mutations in their ssu rRNA. Microarrays have also been successfully used to study the expression levels of mycotoxin gene clusters. Schmidt-Heydt and Geisen [15] developed a microarray which contained oligonucleotide probes for the biosynthesis pathways of fumonisin, aflatoxin, ochratoxin, patulin and trichothecene.