Abstract

Almonds are among the commodities at risk of aflatoxin contamination by Aspergillus flavus.Temperature and water activity are the two key determinants in pre and post-harvest environmentsinfluencing both the rate of fungal spoilage and aflatoxin production. Varying the combination ofthese parameters can completely inhibit or fully activate the biosynthesis of aflatoxin, so it isfundamental to know which combinations can control or be conducive to aflatoxin contamination.Little information is available about the influence of these parameters on aflatoxin production onalmonds. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of different combinations oftemperature (20°C, 28°C, and 37°C) and water activity (0.90, 0.93, 0.96, 0.99 aw) on growth,aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) production and expression of the two regulatory genes, aflR and aflS, and twostructural genes, aflD and aflO, of the aflatoxin biosynthetic cluster in A. flavus grown on analmond medium solidified with agar. Maximum accumulation of fungal biomass and AFB1production was obtained at 28°C and 0.96 aw; no fungal growth and AFB1 production wereobserved at 20°C at the driest tested conditions (0.90 and 0.93 aw). At 20° and 37°C AFB1production was 70-90% lower or completely suppressed, depending on aw. Reverse transcriptasequantitative PCR showed that the two regulatory genes (aflR and aflS) were highly expressed atmaximum (28°C) and minimum (20°C and 37°C) AFB1 production. Conversely the two structuralgenes (aflD and aflO) were highly expressed only at maximum AFB1 production (28°C and 0.96-0.99 aw). It seems that temperature acts as a key factor influencing aflatoxin production which isstrictly correlated to the induction of expression of structural biosynthesis genes (aflD and aflO),but not to that of aflatoxin regulatory genes (aflR and aflS), whose functional products are mostlikely subordinated to other regulatory processes acting at post translational level.The results of this study are useful to select conditions that could be used in the almond processingchain to suppress aflatoxin production in this important product

Autore Pugliese

• Epifani Filomena , Perrone Giancarlo , Panzarini Giuseppe , Solfrizzo Michele , Gallo Antonia

Tutti gli autori

• A. Gallo; M. Solfrizzo; F. Epifani; G. Panzarini; G. Perrone

Titolo volume/Rivista

International journal of food microbiology

Anno di pubblicazione

2015

ISSN

0168-1605

ISBN

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Numero di citazioni Wos

Nessuna citazione

Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

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Numero di citazioni Scopus

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Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

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Settori ERC

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Codici ASJC

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