''Aspergillus luchuensis'' (previous names ''A. foetidus'' and ''A. acidus'') is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of fungus in the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Aspergillus ' () is a genus consisting of several hundred mold species found in various climates worldwide. ''Aspergillus'' was first catalogued in 1729 by the Italian priest and biologist Pier Antonio Micheli. Viewing the fungi under a microscope, Miche ...

''. It belongs to the group of black ''Aspergilli'' which are important industrial workhorses. The fungus has been used to make '' awamori'', a distilled spirit in

Okinawa Island , officially , is the largest of the Okinawa Islands and the Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands of Japan in the Kyushu region. It is the smallest and least populated of the five Japanese archipelago, main islands of Japan. The island is ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, and is also used to make ''

shōchū is a Japanese distilled beverage. It is typically distilled from rice, barley, sweet potatoes, buckwheat, or brown sugar, though it is sometimes produced from other ingredients such as chestnut, sesame seeds, potatoes, or even carrots. Typ ...

'' and

sake Sake, , or saki, also referred to as Japanese rice wine, is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indeed any East Asi ...

. This species was first isolated and described by Tamaki Inui of the

University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

in 1901. For more than 100 years there has been confusion between this species and '' Aspergillus awamori'' and ''

Aspergillus niger ''Aspergillus niger'' is a mold classified within the ''Nigri'' section of the ''Aspergillus'' genus. The ''Aspergillus'' genus consists of common molds found throughout the environment within soil and water, on vegetation, in fecal matter, on de ...

'' with regard to scientific names and classification. The

scientific name In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

for this species is derived from "Ryukyu", the historical name for Okinawa, Japan. It is authorized as a along with ''

Aspergillus oryzae ''Aspergillus oryzae'', also known as , is a mold used in East Asia to saccharify rice, sweet potato, and barley in the making of alcoholic beverages such as '' sake'' and '' shōchū'', and also to ferment soybeans for making soy sauce and '' ...

'', '' Aspergillus sojae'' and ''Aspergillus kawachii'' by the Scientific Conference of Brewing Society Japan because it is used not only in brewing but also in a variety of foods and is useful in the lives of Japanese people. In 1918, Genichiro Kawachi isolated an

albino Albinism is the congenital absence of melanin in an animal or plant resulting in white hair, feathers, scales and skin and reddish pink or blue eyes. Individuals with the condition are referred to as albinos. Varied use and interpretation of ...

mutant In biology, and especially in genetics, a mutant is an organism or a new genetic character arising or resulting from an instance of mutation, which is generally an alteration of the DNA sequence of the genome or chromosome of an organism. It i ...

of ''Aspergillus luchuensis'' (black ''kōji'') and named it ''Aspergillus kawachii'' (white ''kōji''). This mutant is now also called ''Aspergillus luchuensis mut. kawachii''. In ''shōchū'' brewing, ''

'' (yellow ''kōji'') was traditionally used, but black and white ''kōji'' produced more

citric acid Citric acid is an organic compound with the formula . It is a Transparency and translucency, colorless Weak acid, weak organic acid. It occurs naturally in Citrus, citrus fruits. In biochemistry, it is an intermediate in the citric acid cycle, ...

and were more effective in preventing microorganism growth, so the use of black ''kōji'' was recommended from the 1940s and white ''kōji'' from the 1950s. Brewing with each type of ''kōji'' brings different flavors to ''shōchū''. Sake was also traditionally brewed with yellow ''kōji'', but from the 21st century sake brewed with white or black ''kōji'' began to appear. The black ''kōji'' variants and white ''kōji'' that Kawachi discovered and isolated have been used in ''makgeolli'' and ''soju'' in Korea since the 1940s. Its genome has been

sequenced In genetics and biochemistry, sequencing means to determine the primary structure (sometimes incorrectly called the primary sequence) of an unbranched biopolymer. Sequencing results in a symbolic linear depiction known as a sequence which succi ...

by two different research groups, first in 2016, and then in 2017. The first sequencing of the ''A. luchuensis'' genome reported a genome assembly size of 34.7 Mbp and reported the presence of 11,691 genes.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q60185199 luchuensis Fungi described in 1901 Fungus species

See also

References