Fungal ecology and the occurrence of mycotoxins

J.I. Pitt

Fungal ecology and the occurrence of mycotoxins

In: Mycotoxins and phycotoxins

Author:

J.I. Pitt

J.I. Pitt Food Science Australia, P.O. Box 52, North Ryde, NSW 1670, Australia; John.Pitt@csiro.au

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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 31–41

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.3920/9789086865857_003

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It is commonly assumed that if a mycotoxin is found in a particular commodity in one location, it will occur everywhere. The true picture is much more complex. Some cereal crops are grown over very wide areas of the globe, with marked differences in both temperature and rainfall patterns. Wheat and barley grown in Northern Europe and parts of Canada, with short cool, growing seasons, are often contaminated with ochratoxin A due to growth of Penicillium verrucosum, a species which grows only below 30 °C. However, in warmer climates such as the United States and Australia, P. verrucosum is at most very uncommon, so small grains from those areas do not contain ochratoxin A. The ecology of the Fusarium species which grow and produce trichothecenes in small grains is also complex. F. graminearum and relatives, the producers of deoxynivalenol, nivalenol and zearalenone, grow over a wide temperature range, and can be expected to produce toxins wherever and whenever cool damp harvest seasons predispose the crops to infection. Only in Australia, where prime quality wheat normally matures at temperatures around 40 ºC, are trichothecenes not a commercial problem. Some kinds of mycotoxins are more universally produced. Fusarium verticillioides is associated with maize, so fumonisins can occur wherever maize is grown, and levels are mainly influenced by local climatic conditions near harvest. Crops also vary in their susceptibility to the growth of particular fungi. Aflatoxins are produced by two common fungal species, Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus, especially in nuts and oilseeds in the tropics. However, while A. flavus is associated with maize, peanuts and cottonseed, and produces aflatoxins in all three crops, A. parasiticus produces significant aflatoxin levels only in peanuts. Moreover A. parasiticus does not occur in one large peanut growing area of the world, Southeast Asia. These and other examples of the influence of ecology on fungal growth and mycotoxin production are described in this paper.

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Mycotoxins and phycotoxins

Advances in determination, toxicology and exposure management

E-Book ISBN:: 9789086865857

Publisher:: Wageningen Academic

Print Publication Date:: 30 Oct 2006

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- Life Sciences

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Fungal ecology and the occurrence of mycotoxins

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Mycotoxins and phycotoxins

Advances in determination, toxicology and exposure management

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