Abstract
Mycotoxins produced by Fusarium species on cereals represent a major concern for food safety worldwide. Fusarium toxins that are currently under regulation for their content in food include trichothecenes, fumonisins, and zearalenone. Biological control of Fusarium spp. has been widely explored with the aim of limiting disease occurrence, but few efforts have focused so far on limiting toxin accumulation in grains. The bacterial genus Streptomyces is responsible for the production of numerous drug molecules and represents a huge resource for the discovery of new molecules. Streptomyces spp. are also efficient plant colonizers and able to employ different mechanisms of control against toxigenic fungi on cereals. This review describes the outcomes of research using Streptomyces strains and/or their derived molecules to limit toxin production and/or contamination of Fusarium species in cereals. Both the scientific and patent literature were analyzed, starting from the year 2000, and we highlight promising results as well as the current pitfalls and limitations of this approach.
Highlights
Mycotoxins are extracellular metabolites produced by filamentous fungi that contaminate cereals, grains, fruits, and vegetables
Often the bioactivity of the selected strain is not related to a single mechanism, and different metabolites, enzymes, or volatile organic compounds likely contribute to the overall antifungal activity
Modest activity was observed by the metabolites extracted from Streptomyces LZ35 against F. verticillioides [104]
Summary
Mycotoxins are extracellular metabolites produced by filamentous fungi that contaminate cereals, grains, fruits, and vegetables. The ability to produce a variety of secondary metabolites, including anti-infective agents, has an important ecological role including the inhibition of competitors during the transition from mycelial to aerial growth [36]. These various characteristics enable them to colonize different substrates and establish symbiotic interactions with plant tissues and other eukaryotes [37]. The diversity of secondary metabolite production plus their reported endophytic features make the genus Streptomyces a perfect candidate to control toxigenic Fusarium spp. development and related toxin production [41,42]. The scientific and patent literature were analyzed from the period 2000–2018
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