Min Sik Kim 1, Sinil Kim 1, Byeong-Seok Ha 1, Hye-Young Park 3, Seong-Yeol BaeK 3, Soo-Hwan Yeo 3 and Hyeon- Su Ro 1,2*
1Division of Applied Life Science, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 660-701, Korea
2Research Institute for Life Science, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 660-701, Korea
3Fermented Food Science Division, NAAS, RDA, Wanju 565-850, Korea
Correspondence to rohyeon@gnu.ac.kr
Korean Journal of Mycology (Kor J Mycol) September 30, 2014, 42(3):191-200.
https://doi.org/10.4489/KJM.2014.42.3.191
Received: September 8, 2014; Accepted: September 23, 2014
Published: September 30, 2014.
© The Korean Society of Mycology
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Nuruk samples collected from various regions in Korea were investigated in terms of fungal contents and diversity. In measurement of colony forming unit (CFU) in Nuruk suspensions on DRBC agar, Nuruk samples MS4, MS8, and MS10 were among the highest fungal density, with 1,278.9±21.6 (×10 4), 1,868.0±27.7 (×10 4), and 775.1±19.2 (×10 4) were among the samples showing the highest fungal density. CFU per 20 mg Nuruk, respectively. The majority of fungal components were yeasts, including Pichia anomala, P. kudriavzevii, Kluyveromyces marxianus, and Saccharomycopsis fibuligera, whereas Aspergillus oryzae and Rhizopus oryzae, the representative Nuruk fungi, were predominant only in the low fungal density Nuruks (MS2, MS5, and MS11). Saccharification capability of the fungal isolates was assessed by measurement of amylase activity in the culture broth. The highest amylase activity was found in A. niger and A. luchuensis, followed by S. fibuligera. A. oryzae and R. oryzae showed fair amylase activity but significantly lower than those of the three fungal species. R. oryzae was suggested to play an additional role in degradation of β-glucan in crop component of Nuruk since R. oryzae was the only fungus that showed β-glucanase activity among the fungal isolates. To confirm the safety of Nuruk, aflatoxigenicity of the isolated Aspergillus was estimated using the DNA markers norB-cypA, aflR, and omtA. All of the isolates turned out to be non-aflatoxigenic as evidenced by the deletion of gene markers, norB-cypA and aflR, and the absence of aflatoxin in the culture supernatants shown by TLC analysis.
Aflatoxin, Fungal diversity, Nuruk, Saccharification, Yeast