In December 2005, a Japanese consortium, led by The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) publically released the A. oryzae (RIB40) genome. A list of the consortium members can found be on the NITE website.

The genome sequence was obtained by using the whole-genome shotgun (WGS) approach followed by gap closure and directed sequencing of repeats. Mapping of scaffolds to chromosomes was done by hybridisation to electrophorectically separated chromosomes and digested genomic dna. The assembly and scaffolds were further validated by optical mapping. First-pass automated annotation was carried out using the Cluster of Orthologous Groups (COG) classification.

There are eight chromosomes (1 to 8) and three unassigned fragments annotated within CADRE.