Sarocladium and Lecanicillium Associated with Maize Seeds and Their Potential to Form Selected Secondary Metabolites.

Lidia Błaszczyk,Karolina Gromadzka,Jerzy Chełkowski,Katarzyna Mikołajczak,Agnieszka Waśkiewicz

doi:10.3390/biom11010098

Lidia Błaszczyk, Karolina Gromadzka + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/biom11010098

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Abstract

The occurrence and diversity of Lecanicillium and Sarocladium in maize seeds and their role in this cereal are poorly understood. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate Sarocladium and Lecanicillium communities found in endosphere of maize seeds collected from fields in Poland and their potential to form selected bioactive substances. The sequencing of the internally transcribed spacer regions 1 (ITS 1) and 2 (ITS2) and the large-subunit (LSU, 28S) of the rRNA gene cluster resulted in the identification of 17 Sarocladium zeae strains, three Sarocladium strictum and five Lecanicillium lecanii isolates. The assay on solid substrate showed that S. zeae and S. strictum can synthesize bassianolide, vertilecanin A, vertilecanin A methyl ester, 2-decenedioic acid and 10-hydroxy-8-decenoic acid. This is also the first study revealing the ability of these two species to produce beauvericin and enniatin B1, respectively. Moreover, for the first time in the present investigation, pyrrocidine A and/or B have been annotated as metabolites of S. strictum and L. lecanii. The production of toxic, insecticidal and antibacterial compounds in cultures of S. strictum, S. zeae and L. lecanii suggests the requirement to revise the approach to study the biological role of fungi inhabiting maize seeds.

Highlights

The seeds of many agronomically important crops such as maize (Zea maize L.) are frequently colonized by fungal communities, both externally and internally
Aspergillus, Fusarium, Wallemia, Sarocladium, and Penicillium were reported as the predominant genera occurring in various maize kernel storage conditions [3]
Cladosporium sphaerospermum, Penicillium aurantiogriseum, and Trichoderma gamsii were exclusively isolated from the internal tissue of maize seeds [2]

Summary

Introduction

The seeds of many agronomically important crops such as maize (Zea maize L.) are frequently colonized by fungal communities, both externally and internally. Aspergillus, Alternaria, Cladosporium, Curvularia, Fusarium, Mucor, Penicillium, Sarocladium, and Trichoderma to be the most prevalent fungal taxa in Ascomycota [1,2,3]. Cladosporium sphaerospermum, Penicillium aurantiogriseum, and Trichoderma gamsii were exclusively isolated from the internal tissue of maize seeds [2]. Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus penicillioides, Aspergillus niger, Cladosporium cladosporioides, Fusarium andiyazi, Fusarium graminearum, Fusarium incarnatum-equiseti, Fusarium nygamai, Trichoderma longibrachiatum, Trichoderma harzianum, Penicillium digitatum, Mucor fragilis, and Wallemia sebi were isolated only from the surface of seeds [1,2,3]. Alternaria alternata, Fusarium verticillioides, Fusarium proliferatum, Penicillium oxalicum, Penicillium polonicum, and Sarocladium zeae were isolated from both the external surface and internal tissues [1,2,3].

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