Abstract
Contamination by fungal and bacterial species and their metabolites can affect grain quality and health of wheat consumers. In this study, sequence analyses of conserved DNA regions of fungi and bacteria combined with determination of trichothecenes and aflatoxins revealed the microbiome and mycotoxins of wheat from different silo positions (top, middle, and bottom) and storage times (3, 6, 9, and 12 months). The fungal community in wheat on the first day of storage (T0) included 105 classified species (81 genera) and 41 unclassified species. Four species had over 10% of the relative abundance: Alternaria alternata (12%), Filobasidium floriforme (27%), Fusarium graminearum (12%), and Wallemia sebi (12%). Fungal diversity and relative abundance of Fusarium in wheat from top silo positions were significantly lower than at other silo positions during storage. Nivalenol and deoxynivalenol in wheat were 13–34% higher in all positions at 3 months compared to T0, and mycotoxins in wheat from middle and bottom positions at 6 to 12 months were 24–57% higher than at T0. The relative abundance of toxigenic Aspergillus and aflatoxins were low at T0 and during storage. This study provides information on implementation and design of fungus and mycotoxin management strategies as well as prediction models.
Highlights
Wheat is a staple food crop in many parts of the world, and has a per capita consumption of78.46 kg/years in China
DNA fragment of about 500 bp in length and one bacterial DNA fragment of about 500 bp in length, as expected (Figure S1). These results indicated that all wheat samples contained both fungal and bacterial communities, and the isolated DNA was subjected to barcoded Illumina paired-end sequencing (BIPES)
Based on metagenomic sequencing of fungal ITS2 in stored wheat grains, the average number of raw paired reads generated per sample was 33,762
Summary
Wheat is a staple food crop in many parts of the world, and has a per capita consumption of. In Iranian silos, wheat samples imported from Argentina contained six fungi, including toxigenic fungi Fusarium spp. and Penicillium spp. In Kazakhstan, wheat grains that were stored in Karaj silos or unloaded from trains contained ten fungal genera, including the toxigenic species Aspergillus spp., Fusarium spp., and Penicillium [5]. In Saudi Arabia, wheat grains were contaminated by six fungal genera, and the most common toxigenic genera were Fusarium (29.1%), Aspergillus (14.3%), and Penicillium (9.3%) [4]. Fungal species from Aspergillus, Fusarium, and Penicillium are toxigenic producers that generate the most important mycotoxins and reduce quality of products [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]. These findings are likely to encourage the implementation and design of mold and mycotoxin management strategies, as well as prediction models under storage conditions
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