A Biological Bar Code for Determining the Geographical Origin of Fruit by Using 28S rDNA Fingerprinting of Fungal Communities by PCR-DGGE: An Application to Physalis Fruits from Egypt

Traceability is now one of the great concerns of the customers and the food regulators. We proposed a new analytical molecular method based on the analysis in a universal way of the microbial communities of food that we linked statistically to its geographical origin. 28S rDNA profiles generated by PCR-DGGE were used to detect the variation in fungal communities of three species of Physalis fruit (Physalis ixocarpa Brot, Physalis pubescens L, and Physalis pruinosa L) from four Egyptian regions (Qalyoubia, Minufiya, Beheira, and Alexandria). The fungal profiles of Physalis from different regions were specific for each location and could be used as a unique biological bar code to discriminate the origin of fruits. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper describing a molecular method of fungal ecology to determine the fruit origin by using 28S rDNA fingerprinting of fungi.