| Tempeh is fermented food from Indonesia. In general, tempeh is made from fermented soybeans by Rhizopus, as main microorganism. In Indonesia, starter (“ragi”) is used as source of Rhizopus to make tempeh. Some Rhizopus species that contribute in fermentation of tempeh are R. stolonifer, R oryzae R. delemar and R. oligosporus (synonym R. microsporus var. oligosporus). The aim of this study was to identify Rhizopus species from various sources of ragi, such as traditional and commercial ragi. Identification of Rhizopus was conducted based on molecular technique using Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) marker. Phylogenetic tree was constructed by MEGA7 software with Phycomyces blakesleeanus CBS 284.35 (JN206308) as outgroup. Observations of Rhizopus growth rate were conducted at the temperature of 33oC to support molecular data. Twenty nine strains, i.e. 14 strains from traditional ragi, 13 strains from commercial ragi and 2 strains from tempeh were isolated successfully. From the phylogenetic tree, all strains were identified as R. microsporus. These strains could live within the temperature up to 45oC, 42oC, 45oC, and 48oC, except TB57, TB 60, TB62, TB63, TB 64 and TB67 strains, which could live within the temperature up to 48oC. However, ITS sequence analysis was insufficient to classify the specific varieties of these strains. |