Compositions and methods for detecting and discriminating between yeast or mold

A method for detecting and distinguishing between yeast or mold in a sample suspected of being contaminated with said yeast or mold comprising:

• a) contacting nucleic acid molecules from said sample with a mold-specific probe or a yeast or mold-specific probe under hybridization conditions, wherein
• i) said mold-specific probe is capable of specifically binding to a mold-specific region comprising at least 17 contiguous base pairs within an endogenous chitin synthase gene of said mold but not to a yeast or mold-specific region of the endogenous chitin synthase gene, wherein said mold-specific region shares greater than 72% sequence identity between two or more different species of said mold;
• and
• ii) said yeast or mold-specific probe is capable of specifically binding to a yeast or mold-specific region comprising at least 17 contiguous base pairs within an endogenous 1,3-β-glucan synthase gene of said yeast or mold, wherein said yeast or mold-specific region shares greater than 70% sequence identity between two or more different species of said yeast or mold;
• and
• b) detecting hybridization between said mold-specific or said yeast or mold-specific probe and said nucleic acid molecules, wherein
• i) hybridization of said mold-specific probe with said nucleic acid molecule indicates the presence of said mold in said sample;
• or
• ii) hybridization of said yeast or mold-specific probe with said nucleic acid molecule indicates the presence of said yeast or mold in said sample.