Molecular biodiversity of mycotoxigenic fungi that threaten food safety

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Abstract

Fungal biodiversity is one of the most important contributors to the occurrence and severity of mycotoxincontamination of crop plants. Phenotypic and metabolic plasticity has enabled mycotoxigenic fungi to colonizea broad range of agriculturally important crops and to adapt to a range of environmental conditions.New mycotoxin-commodity combinations provide evidence for the ability of fungi to adapt to changing conditionsand the emergence of genotypes that confer enhanced aggressiveness toward plants and/or alteredmycotoxin production profiles. Perhaps the most important contributor to qualitative differences in mycotoxinproduction among fungi is variation in mycotoxin biosynthetic genes. Molecular genetic and biochemicalanalyses of toxigenic fungi have elucidated specific differences in biosynthetic genes that are responsible forintra- and inter-specific differences in mycotoxin production. For Aspergillus and Fusarium, the mycotoxigenicgenera of greatest concern, variation in biosynthetic genes responsible for production of individual families ofmycotoxins appears to be the result of evolutionary adaptation. Examples of such variation have been reportedfor: a) aflatoxin biosynthetic genes in Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus; b) trichothecene biosyntheticgeneswithin and among Fusarium species; and c) fumonisin biosynthetic genes in Aspergillus and Fusarium species.Understanding the variation in these biosynthetic genes and the basis for variation inmycotoxin productionis important for accurate assessment of the risks that fungi pose to food safety and for prevention of mycotoxincontamination of crops in the field and in storage.

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  • A. Moretti ; A. Susca; G. Mule'; A. F. Logrieco; R. H. Proctor

Titolo volume/Rivista

International journal of food microbiology

Anno di pubblicazione

2013

ISSN

0168-1605

ISBN

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Numero di citazioni Wos

Nessuna citazione

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Settori ERC

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Codici ASJC

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