PCR Based Screening of Fusarium sp. in some Organic Products

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In the past few decades the issue of healthy, organic food has become of great importance among consumers and therefore food producers. It is the age of ecological food with the challenge of producing ecological crops. Fungi are of importance for human and animal health because of their ability to produce mycotoxin. The aim of our work was to develop a rapid, cost efficient method of identifying the fungal infection in different ecological products by using PCR screening methods. In this purpose 18 ecological products meaning seeds and flours, designated to be aliments or ingredients to different cosmetically products were purchased. DNA was isolated from collected samples and control. The screening was performed by PCR method using 4 specific primer pairs. In order to determine if the DNA suspension is proper for to be used, the samples were amplified with the specific primers for the ribulose-1,5-bisphosphat carboxylase gene (RuBisCo). Further on, the screening was performed for the presence of Fusarium and for 4 specific species of that genus. All the samples were positive for the presence of Fusarium genus DNA. The screen pointed out that from 12 screened samples five were positive for F. graminearum, two were positive for F. culmorum , five were positive for F. proliferatum, four were positive for F. verticiloides and for 6 the specie of fungus was not identified. With the present work we emphasized another issue that must be taken into account when the safety of these products is evaluated.