Aspergillus oryzae (
ChineseChinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of languages mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
: 麴菌, 麴霉菌, 曲霉菌,
pinyinPinyin , or more formally Hanyu Pinyin , is currently the most commonly used romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Hanyu means the Chinese language, and pinyin means "phonetics", or more literally, "spelling sound" or "spelled sound"...
: qū meí jūn;
Japaneseis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family. There are a number of proposed relationships with other languages, but none have gained general acceptance...
: 麹, kōji, or 麹菌, kōji-kin,
KoreanKorean is the official language of North Korea and South Korea. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers. It was formerly written using Hanja, borrowed Chinese characters pronounced in the Korean...
: 누룩균, nurukgyun) is a
filamentousA hypha is a long, branching filamentous cell of a fungus, and also of unrelated Actinobacteria. In most fungi, hyphae are the main mode of vegetative growth, and are collectively called a mycelium; yeasts are unicellular fungi that do not grow as hyphae.-Structure:A hypha consists of one or more...
fungusA fungus is any member of a large group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. The Fungi are classified as a kingdom that is separate from plants, animals and bacteria...
(a
moldMolds include all species of microscopic fungi that grow in the form of multicellular filaments, called hyphae. In contrast, microscopic fungi that grow as single cells are called yeasts...
). It is used in
ChineseChinese cuisine originated in China and has become widespread in many other parts of the world — from Asia to the Americas, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa. In recent years, connoisseurs of Chinese cuisine have also sprouted in Eastern Europe and South Asia...
and
Japanese cuisineThe modern term "Japanese cuisine" means traditional-style Japanese food, similar to what already existed before the end of national seclusion in 1868...
to
fermentFermentation in food processing typically is the conversion of carbohydrates to alcohols and carbon dioxide or organic acids using yeasts, bacteria, or a combination thereof, under anaerobic conditions. A more restricted definition of fermentation is the chemical conversion of sugars into ethanol...
soybeanThe soybean or soya bean is a species of legume native to East Asia. The plant is classed as an oilseed rather than a pulse. It is an annual plant that has been used in China for 5,000 years to primarily add nitrogen into the soil as part of crop rotation...
s. It is also used to saccharify rice, other
grainsCereals, grains or cereal grains, {as a collective} are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their fruit seeds - the endocarp, germ and bran...
, and
potatoThe potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species. Potatoes are the world's fourth largest food...
es in the making of
alcoholic beverageAn alcoholic beverage is a drink that contains ethanol . Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits....
s such as
huangjiuHuangjiu is a type of Chinese alcoholic beverage brewed directly from grains such as rice, millet, or wheat. Unlike baijiu, such liquors are not distilled, and contain less than 20% alcohol, due to the inhibition of fermentation by ethanol at that concentration...
,
sakeSake or saké is a Japanese alcoholic beverage made from rice.This beverage is called sake in English, but in Japanese, sake or o-sake refers to alcoholic drinks in general. The Japanese term for this specific beverage is Nihonshu , meaning "Japanese sake".Sake is also referred to in English as...
, and
shōchūis a distilled beverage native to Japan. It is most commonly distilled from barley, sweet potatoes, or rice. Typically, it contains 25% alcohol by volume ....
. The
domesticationDomestication or taming is the process whereby a population of animals or plants, through a process of selection, becomes accustomed to human provision and control. A defining characteristic of domestication is artificial selection by humans...
of
A. oryzae occurred at least two thousand years ago.
A. oryzae is used for the production of
rice vinegarRice vinegar is a vinegar made from fermented rice or rice wine in China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam.-Chinese:Chinese rice vinegars are stronger than Japanese ones, and range in colour from clear to various shades of red and brown...
s.
Dr.
Aspergillus oryzae (
ChineseChinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of languages mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
: 麴菌, 麴霉菌, 曲霉菌,
pinyinPinyin , or more formally Hanyu Pinyin , is currently the most commonly used romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Hanyu means the Chinese language, and pinyin means "phonetics", or more literally, "spelling sound" or "spelled sound"...
: qū meí jūn;
Japaneseis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family. There are a number of proposed relationships with other languages, but none have gained general acceptance...
: 麹, kōji, or 麹菌, kōji-kin,
KoreanKorean is the official language of North Korea and South Korea. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers. It was formerly written using Hanja, borrowed Chinese characters pronounced in the Korean...
: 누룩균, nurukgyun) is a
filamentousA hypha is a long, branching filamentous cell of a fungus, and also of unrelated Actinobacteria. In most fungi, hyphae are the main mode of vegetative growth, and are collectively called a mycelium; yeasts are unicellular fungi that do not grow as hyphae.-Structure:A hypha consists of one or more...
fungusA fungus is any member of a large group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. The Fungi are classified as a kingdom that is separate from plants, animals and bacteria...
(a
moldMolds include all species of microscopic fungi that grow in the form of multicellular filaments, called hyphae. In contrast, microscopic fungi that grow as single cells are called yeasts...
). It is used in
ChineseChinese cuisine originated in China and has become widespread in many other parts of the world — from Asia to the Americas, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa. In recent years, connoisseurs of Chinese cuisine have also sprouted in Eastern Europe and South Asia...
and
Japanese cuisineThe modern term "Japanese cuisine" means traditional-style Japanese food, similar to what already existed before the end of national seclusion in 1868...
to
fermentFermentation in food processing typically is the conversion of carbohydrates to alcohols and carbon dioxide or organic acids using yeasts, bacteria, or a combination thereof, under anaerobic conditions. A more restricted definition of fermentation is the chemical conversion of sugars into ethanol...
soybeanThe soybean or soya bean is a species of legume native to East Asia. The plant is classed as an oilseed rather than a pulse. It is an annual plant that has been used in China for 5,000 years to primarily add nitrogen into the soil as part of crop rotation...
s. It is also used to saccharify rice, other
grainsCereals, grains or cereal grains, {as a collective} are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their fruit seeds - the endocarp, germ and bran...
, and
potatoThe potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species. Potatoes are the world's fourth largest food...
es in the making of
alcoholic beverageAn alcoholic beverage is a drink that contains ethanol . Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits....
s such as
huangjiuHuangjiu is a type of Chinese alcoholic beverage brewed directly from grains such as rice, millet, or wheat. Unlike baijiu, such liquors are not distilled, and contain less than 20% alcohol, due to the inhibition of fermentation by ethanol at that concentration...
,
sakeSake or saké is a Japanese alcoholic beverage made from rice.This beverage is called sake in English, but in Japanese, sake or o-sake refers to alcoholic drinks in general. The Japanese term for this specific beverage is Nihonshu , meaning "Japanese sake".Sake is also referred to in English as...
, and
shōchūis a distilled beverage native to Japan. It is most commonly distilled from barley, sweet potatoes, or rice. Typically, it contains 25% alcohol by volume ....
. The
domesticationDomestication or taming is the process whereby a population of animals or plants, through a process of selection, becomes accustomed to human provision and control. A defining characteristic of domestication is artificial selection by humans...
of
A. oryzae occurred at least two thousand years ago.
A. oryzae is used for the production of
rice vinegarRice vinegar is a vinegar made from fermented rice or rice wine in China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam.-Chinese:Chinese rice vinegars are stronger than Japanese ones, and range in colour from clear to various shades of red and brown...
s.
Dr. Eiji Ichishima of Tohoku University called the kōji fungus a "national fungus" ("
kokkin") in the journal of the Brewing Society of Japan, because of its importance not only for
sake brewing but also for making
misois a traditional Japanese seasoning produced by fermenting rice, barley and/or soybeans, with salt and the fungus , the most typical miso being made with soy. The result is a thick paste used for sauces and spreads, pickling vegetables or meats, and mixing with dashi soup stock to serve as miso...
,
soy sauceSoy sauce , soya sauce or is produced by fermenting soybeans with the molds Aspergillus oryzae and Aspergillus soyae along with roasted grain, water, and salt. Soy sauce was invented in China, where it has been used as a condiment for close to 2,500 years...
and a range of other traditional Japanese foods. His proposal was approved at the society's annual meeting in 2006.
"Red
kōji-kin" is a separate species,
Monascus purpureusMonascus purpureus is a species of mold that is purplish-red in color...
.
Properties desirable in sake brewing and testing
The following properties of
A. oryzae strains are important in rice saccharification for sake brewing:
- Growth – rapid mycelial
thumb|right|Fungal myceliaMycelium is the vegetative part of a fungus, consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae. The mass of hyphae is sometimes called shiro, especially within the fairy ring fungi. Fungal colonies composed of mycelia are found in soil and on or in many other substrates...
growth on and into the rice kernels
- Enzymes – strong secretion of amylase
An amylase is an enzyme that breaks starch down into sugar. Amylase is present in human saliva, where it begins the chemical process of digestion. Foods that contain much starch but little sugar, such as rice and potato, taste slightly sweet as they are chewed because amylase turns some of their...
s (α-Amylaseα-Amylase is the major form of amylase found in humans and other mammals. It is also an enzyme present in seeds which reserves are made of starch, or in fungi...
and glucoamylase); some carboxypeptidaseCarboxypeptidase is an enzyme that hydrolyzes the carboxy-terminal end of a peptide bond. Humans, animals, and plants contain several types of carboxypeptidases with diverse functions ranging from catabolism to protein maturation.-Functions:The first carboxypeptidases studied were those involved...
; low tyrosinaseTyrosinase is an enzyme that catalyses the oxidation of phenols and is widespread in plants and animals...
- Aesthetics – pleasant fragrance; accumulation of flavoring compounds
- Colour – low production of deferriferrichrome (a siderophore
Siderophores are small, high-affinity iron chelating compounds secreted by microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi and grasses. . Siderophores are amongst the strongest soluble Fe
3+ binding agents known....
), flavins, and other coloured substances
Genome
Initially kept secret, the
A. oryzae genomeIn modern molecular biology the genome refers to all of its hereditary information encoded in DNA .The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA. The term was adapted in 1920 by Hans Winkler, Professor of Botany at the University of Hamburg, Germany...
was released by a consortium of Japanese biotechnology companies in late 2005. The eight
chromosomeA chromosome is an organized structure of DNA and protein that is found in cells. It is a single piece of coiled DNA containing many genes, regulatory elements and other nucleotide sequences. Chromosomes also contain DNA-bound proteins, which serve to package the DNA and control its functions...
s together comprise 37 million
base pairIn molecular biology, two nucleotides on opposite complementary DNA or RNA strands that are connected via hydrogen bonds are called a base pair . In the canonical Watson-Crick base pairing, adenine forms a base pair with thymine , as does guanine with cytosine in DNA. In RNA, thymine is replaced...
s and twelve thousand predicted
geneA gene is the basic unit of heredity in a living organism. All living things depend on genes. Genes hold the information to build and maintain their cells and pass genetic traits to offspring...
s. The genome of
A. oryzae is thus one-third larger than that of two related
AspergilliAspergillus is a genus of a few hundred molds found throughout much of nature worldwide. Aspergillus was first catalogued in 1729 by the Italian priest and biologist Pier Antonio Micheli. Viewing the fungi under a microscope, Micheli was reminded of the shape of an aspergillum , and named the genus...
, the genetics model organism
Aspergillus nidulansAspergillus nidulans is one of many species of filamentous fungi in the phylum Ascomycota. It has been an important research organism for studying eukaryotic cell biologyfor over 50 years,...
and the dangerous human pathogen
Aspergillus fumigatusAspergillus fumigatus is a fungus of the genus Aspergillus, and is one of the most common Aspergillus species to cause disease in immuno-compromised individuals....
. Many of the extra genes present in
A. oryzae are predicted to be involved in
secondary metabolismSecondary metabolites are organic compounds that are not directly involved in the normal growth, development, or reproduction of organisms. Unlike primary metabolites, absence of secondary metabolities does not result in immediate death, but rather in long-term impairment of the organism's...
. The sequenced strain was isolated in 1950 and is called RIB40 or
ATCCThe American Type Culture Collection is a private, not-for-profit biological resource center whose mission focuses on the acquisition, authentication, production, preservation, development and distribution of standard reference microorganisms, cell lines and other materials for research in the...
42149; its morphology, growth, and enzyme production are typical of strains used for
sake brewing.
In fiction
A. oryzae is a supporting character (of sorts) in the manga series
Moyashimon: Tales of Agricultureis a Japanese manga series created by Masayuki Ishikawa. It has been serialized in Kodansha's seinen magazine Evening since August 2004. It won the 2008 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for Grand Prize and the 2008 Kodansha Manga Award for general manga. Del Rey Manga licensed the manga and will be...
and its anime adaption.
External links