Abstract
Fusarium is among the top 10 most economically important plant pathogens in the world. Trichothecenes are the principal mycotoxins produced as secondary metabolites by select species of Fusarium and cause acute and chronic toxicity in animals and humans upon exposure either through consumption and/or contact. There are over 100 trichothecene metabolites and they can occur in a wide range of commodities that form food and feed products. This review discusses strategies to mitigate the risk of mycotoxin production and exposure by examining the Fusarium-trichothecene model. Fundamental to mitigation of risk is knowing the identity of the pathogen. As such, a comparison of current, recommended molecular approaches for sequence-based identification of Fusaria is presented, followed by an analysis of the rationale and methods of trichothecene (TRI) genotyping and chemotyping. This type of information confirms the source and nature of risk. While both are powerful tools for informing regulatory decisions, an assessment of the causes of incongruence between TRI genotyping and chemotyping data must be made. Reconciliation of this discordance will map the way forward in terms of optimization of molecular approaches, which includes data validation and sharing in the form of accessible repositories of genomic data and browsers for querying such data.
Highlights
Mycotoxins are produced by some fungi as toxic secondary metabolites and impose a serious economic impact at all levels of food and feed production, including crop and animal health and production, processing, and distribution and human health [1,2]
Mycotoxin-producing fungi can be broadly classified into two groups: field fungi (e.g., Fusarium species) infect seeds before harvest and produce mycotoxins in the field (pre-harvest infection in seeds with a high moisture content (22 to 25%); and storage fungi (e.g., Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium species) infect stored seeds/grain and produce mycotoxins on stored produce
The rationale is: (i) sequence comparisons of two independent loci improves the accuracy of identification, (ii) these gene targets are faithfully amplified by PCR and sequenced using primers that are can be successfully used for most members of this genus, (iii) these markers distinguish among sequences at or near species-level, and (iv) these gene sequences are well-represented in the Fusarium MLST database [11,16]
Summary
Mycotoxins are produced by some fungi as toxic secondary metabolites and impose a serious economic impact at all levels of food and feed production, including crop and animal health and production, processing, and distribution and human health [1,2]. These toxic effects can be reversible and irreversible depending on a number of factors [3]. Identifying the source of mycotoxin contamination, i.e., fungus and toxin identification; Toxicological profiling of mycotoxin residues in stored food/feed; Assessing the current analytical methods to identify and quantify such residues; Defining the relationship between mycotoxin levels and different types of food/feed; Effects of mycotoxins on human and animal health. Characterization of the causes associated with discordance between genotyping and chemotyping data and factors affecting reliability of both approaches to mycotoxin detection
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