Abstract
Lipid molecules are increasingly recognized as signals exchanged by organisms interacting in pathogenic and/or symbiotic ways. Some classes of lipids actively determine the fate of the interactions. Host cuticle/cell wall/membrane components such as sphingolipids and oxylipins may contribute to determining the fate of host–pathogen interactions. In the present field study, we considered the relationship between specific sphingolipids and oxylipins of different hybrids of Zea mays and fumonisin by F. verticillioides, sampling ears at different growth stages from early dough to fully ripe. The amount of total and free fumonisin differed significantly between hybrids and increased significantly with maize ripening. Oxylipins and phytoceramides changed significantly within the hybrids and decreased with kernel maturation, starting from physiological maturity. Although the correlation between fumonisin accumulation and plant lipid profile is certain, the data collected so far cannot define a cause-effect relationship but open up new perspectives. Therefore, the question—“Does fumonisin alter plant lipidome or does plant lipidome modulate fumonisin accumulation?”—is still open.
Highlights
Maize is a globally-cultivated crop destined to food and feed production
(FI), Free (FFB) and total (HFB) fumonisins B (B1 + B2 + B3) and oxylipins and ceramides detected in maize samples: 9-HydroxyOctaDecEnoic acids (HODE), 13-HODE, N-(2ʹ-hydroxylignoceroyl)-phytosphingosine (HLP), N-lignoceroyl-phytosphingosine (LP)
In relation to findings of [9], we focused our attention on the presence of specific fatty acid derivatives such as 9- and 13-HydroxyOctaDecEnoic acids (HODE), and phytoceramides such as lignoceric phytosphingosine (Cer(t18:0/24:0)) (LP) and hydroxyl-lignoceric phytosphingosine (Cer(t18:0/24:0(2OH))) (HLP) in the four commercial hybrids of maize naturally infected by
Summary
Maize is a globally-cultivated crop destined to food and feed production. Maize is highly prone to fungal contamination and to mycotoxigenic fungi [1]. Among the fungal pathogens that infect maize, Fusarium verticillioides Sacc. In addition to causing seedling blight, root rot, stalk rot, kernel rot, or ear rot during maize colonisation, F. verticillioides produce fumonisins, toxic secondary metabolites causing a large variety of toxicological effects on animals and humans. Fumonisins are able to disrupt sphingoid based metabolism, and are suspected of inducing nervous system diseases in animals and humans [2,3]. Fumonisin B1 (FB1) has been included in the class 2B by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, because of its possible carcinogenic effect in humans [3].
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