AN AFLATOXIN STRAIN ATCC-15517

Abstract

In an attempt to clarify the taxonomic situation of the strain ATCC-15517, which is a well-known aflatoxin producing fungus, its general morphological and physiological characters, in addition to mutation by ultraviolet rays, were examined by comparing with many kinds of industrial strains used in Japan.
From the results obtained, it seems that this fungus belongs to A.
parasiticus rather than to A. flavus because of its remarkably rough walled conidia and conidiophores, sensitivity to heating, high productivity of acid, strong resistance to ultraviolet light, and other physiological observations, excluding its unstable arrangement of sterigmata.
Thus, it should be placed in a new strain of A. parasiticus series by its globose-shaped vesicles: A. parasiticus Speare var. globosus MURAKAMI nov. var.
Finally, it was confirmed that neither this fungus nor its allied strain was found at all in Japanese industrial strains, from the point of morphology.