Effects of Durum Wheat Cultivars with Different Degrees of FHB Susceptibility Grown under Different Meteorological Conditions on the Contamination of Regulated, Modified and Emerging Mycotoxins.

Valentina Scarpino,Massimo Blandino

doi:10.3390/microorganisms9020408

Abstract

The enhancement of Fusarium head blight (FHB) resistance is one of the best options to reduce mycotoxin contamination in wheat. This study has aimed to verify that the genotypes with high tolerance to deoxynivalenol could guarantee an overall minimization of the sanitary risk, by evaluating the contamination of regulated, modified and emerging mycotoxins on durum wheat cvs with different degrees of FHB susceptibility, grown under different meteorological conditions, in 8 growing seasons in North-West Italy. The years which were characterized by frequent and heavy rainfall in spring were also those with the highest contamination of deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, moniliformin, and enniatins. The most FHB resistant genotypes resulted in the lowest contamination of all the mycotoxins but showed the highest deoxynivalenol-3-glucoside/deoxynivalenol ratio and moniliformin/deoxynivalenol ratio. An inverse relationship between the amount of deoxynivalenol and the deoxynivalenol-3-glucoside/deoxynivalenol ratio was recorded for all the cvs and all the years. Conversely, the enniatins/deoxynivalenol ratio had a less intense relationship with cv tolerance to FHB. In conclusion, even though the more tolerant cvs, showed higher relative relationships between modified/emerging mycotoxins and native/target mycotoxins than the susceptible ones, they showed lower absolute levels of contamination of both emerging and modified mycotoxins.

Highlights

Crop productions will be affected by global warming at various rates in different parts of the world, in the most critical and vulnerable geographic areas, like the Mediterranean Basin [1]
The effects of the choice of a durum wheat cultivar and the meteorological conditions on the contamination of regulated, modified and emerging mycotoxins was studied in North-West Italy over a period of 8 years at Cigliano (45◦ 180 N, 8◦ 010 E; altitude 237 m), on plants grown in a sandy-loam soil (Typic Hapludalfs)
Only a few studies had reported the co-occurrence of the aforementioned mycotoxins and these studies always referred to just a few years, mainly in areas of Central and Southern Italy [18,22,28], France [29], Poland [30], Canada [31] and Argentina [32], without comparing cvs with different degrees of susceptibility to Fusarium head blight (FHB) under field conditions in order to evaluate their contamination by emerging mycotoxins

Summary

Introduction

Crop productions will be affected by global warming at various rates in different parts of the world, in the most critical and vulnerable geographic areas, like the Mediterranean Basin [1]. As a result of global warming (i.e., less severe winter temperatures and more severe dry periods during summer, which could limit the cultivation of summer crops), the geographic distribution of winter wheat might change, especially toward northern latitudes, and it might adapt better to these growing areas [3]. In some countries, such as Italy, the pasta industry is looking for national durum wheat productions with high traceability and quality levels, as far as a high grain protein content is concerned. These qualitative targets can be achieved through the cultivation of winter durum wheat in more temperate and fertile growing areas, such as the Po Valley in Northern Italy. Durum wheat in temperate areas is characterized by a generally higher susceptibility to fungal diseases than the common one, limiting its potential cultivation in these areas [4]

Objectives

Methods

Conclusion