Quantification ofAspergiullus flavus BFE96 by sybr green Q-PCR in black pepper.

A Real Time PCR system (Q-PCR) for the detection and quantification ofAspergillus flavus in black pepper has been used. Thenor1 gene, a gene of the aflatoxin biosynthetic pathway, served as target sequence. The determined copy numbers of thenor1 gene were compared to the cfu numbers obtained by plate counting. There was not a direct correlation of the results with both approaches, however the tendency was the same. In general both values increased with prolonged incubation time. The differences in copy numbers of thenor1 gene to cfu numbers decreased with increasing incubation time.