Comparison of aflatoxigenic and nonaflatoxigenic isolates of Aspergillus flavus using DNA amplification fingerprinting techniques.

Aspergillus flavus is a filamentous fungus that produces mycotoxins in many food and feed crops, such as maize (Zea mays L.). Isolates were analyzed for toxin production by nucleic acid profiles in an attempt to differentiate aflatoxigenic from nonaflatoxigenic isolates. A total of 41 aflatoxigenic and 34 nonalfatoxigenic isolates were included in the study. The isolates were evaluated initially using DNA amplification fingerprinting (DAF) without clear resolution of the groups. A weak association of aflatoxigenic isolates was observed, as evidenced by their clustering in 18 of 81 trees recovered from maximum parsimony analysis of binary characters derived from arbitrary signatures from amplification profiles (ASAP) data; nonaflatoxigenic isolates exhibited a pattern of paraphyletic laddering. Up to five markers unambiguously supported the aflatoxigenic isolate grouping, but the presence of alternative conflicting topologies in equally parsimonious trees precluded the observation of meaningful statistical support. With additional markers for genome of A. flavus, this method could be used to resolve toxigenic from nontoxigenic strains. This additional work could resolve aflatoxigenic isolates of A. flavus present on maize plants using ASAP, which would reduce labor intense costs and potentially lead to faster determination of resistant cultivars in breeding efforts.