3.2. Molecular analysis
The ITS-1 and -2 regions of the rDNA of strain SS10 was successfully amplified by PCR, with the expected fragment sizes of 500 bp. After sequencing the PCR product, the newly identi- fied sequence was deposited into the GenBank database under the following Accession No. HQ401273. A BLAST search against the GenBank or proprietary fungal DNA databases
showed that the rDNA sequence of strain SS10 showed 99% similarity with a 603-bp ITS region of A. niger. A phylogenetic relationship was established through the alignment and cladistic analysis of homologous nucleotide sequences among these fungal species (Fig. 1). Strain SS10 was shown to be the closest to the genus Aspergillus. According to this phylogenetic analysis, strain SS10 was classified under the genus Aspergillus as a variant of Aspergillus niger