Abstract
Worldwide fungal contamination leads to both quantitative and qualitative grain losses during crop growth and/or storage. A greater proportion of grains contamination with toxins often occurs in sub-Saharan Africa, where control measures are limited. We determined fungal diversity and their toxin production ability in household grains meant for human consumption to highlight the risk of mycotoxin exposure among people from northern Uganda. The study underlines the high diversity of fungi that group into 15 genera; many of which are plant pathogens with toxigenic potential. Fusarium verticillioides was the most common fungal species isolated from household grains. The study also indicates that northern Uganda is favored by a high proportion of toxigenic isolates of F. verticillioides, F. andiyazi, and F. proliferatum, which are characterized by a high fumonisins production capability. The fumonisins production ability was not dependent on the species, grain types, and haplotype group to which the isolates belong. The contamination of most household grains with fungi capable of producing a high amount of toxin shows that most people are exposed to an elevated amount of mycotoxins, which shows the frequent problems with mycotoxins that have been reported in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
Highlights
Received: 27 January 2021Crops are susceptible to infections by a variety of plant pathogens [1], of which fungi are the most widespread and destructive, infecting crops in the field and during storage [2,3]
The findings indicate that the majority of isolates of F. verticillioides, F. andiyazi, and F. proliferatum isolated from northern Uganda were able to produce fumonisins
The predominant fungal genus found in northern Uganda was Fusarium, and within this genus, F. verticillioides was the most frequent species
Summary
Received: 27 January 2021Crops are susceptible to infections by a variety of plant pathogens [1], of which fungi are the most widespread and destructive, infecting crops in the field and during storage [2,3]. Storage of grains in many rural African settings, typical of northern Uganda, comes with an elevated cost of grains contamination with fungi due to inappropriate storage structure [7]. The common grain storage structure comprises; sisal bags, pits, wood and wire cribs, wooden open-air, polythene bags, and heaping on floor [8]. Such a storage structure exposes grains to high humidity, storage pests (insects, mites, birds, rodents), and fungal contamination [9], which increases fungal diversity, proliferation, and toxin levels in stored cereal grains. Most grains produced in sub-Saharan Africa are often contaminated with mycotoxins besides severe yield losses caused by a fungal
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