Japan: Genome sequencing of rice malt, Aspergillus Oryzae, completed

The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) announced on December 22 that its Institute for Biological Resources and Functions and Computational Biology Research Center (CBRC) have completed the genome sequencing of Aspergillus oryzae, namely rice malt, in collaboration with the National Institute of Technology and Evaluation (NITE). Aspergillus oryzae is a kind of fungus widely used in Japanese fermented foods including sake, bean paste and soy sauce.

The genome of Aspergillus oryzae was determined by the whole-genome shotgun sequencing method and verified by the optical mapping method. The sequencing results show that the Aspergillus oryzae genome has about 38 million base pairs and 12,000 genes.

The joint research group expects that these achievements will play a role in developing applications of rice malt.

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