Survey and toxigenic abilities of Aspergillus, Fusarium, and Alternaria fungi from wheat and paddy grains in Shanghai, China

Jiajia Meng; Ruijiao Li; Qingwen Huang; Dehua Guo; Kai Fan; Jingya Zhang; Xueting Zhu; Min Wang; Xinyue Chen; Dongxia Nie; Chen Cao; Zhihui Zhao; Zheng Han

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1202738

Survey and toxigenic abilities of Aspergillus, Fusarium, and Alternaria fungi from wheat and paddy grains in Shanghai, China

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Jul 25:14:1202738. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1202738. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Jiajia Meng¹, Ruijiao Li², Qingwen Huang¹, Dehua Guo³, Kai Fan¹, Jingya Zhang¹, Xueting Zhu¹, Min Wang³, Xinyue Chen¹, Dongxia Nie¹, Chen Cao³, Zhihui Zhao¹, Zheng Han^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Agro-food Standards and Testing Technology, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, China.
² School of Health Science and Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China.
³ Technical Center for Animal Plant and Food Inspection and Quarantine, Shanghai Customs, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

A systematic study was carried out on 638 wheat and paddy grains (including fresh and stored samples) collected in 2021 from Shanghai, China, to identify the major mycobiota and their toxigenic abilities. A total of 349 fungi, namely, 252 Fusarium, 53 Aspergillus, and 44 Alternaria, were characterized by morphological and molecular identification. Fusarium and Aspergillus were more frequently isolated in paddy with Fusarium sambucinum species complex and Aspergillus section flavi as the predominant species, respectively. The genus Alternaria was the most frequently isolated fungal species in wheat. The toxin-producing potentials of the identified fungi were further evaluated in vitro. Deoxynevalenol (DON) was produced by 34.5% of Fusarium isolates and zearalenone (ZEN) was produced by 47.6% of them, and one isolate also processed the abilities for fumonisin B₁ (FB₁), B₂ (FB₂), and B₃ (FB₃) productions. Aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁), B₂ (AFB₂), and G₁ (AFG₁) were only generated by Aspergillus section flavi, with the production rate of 65.5%, 27.6%, and 13.8%, respectively. Alternariol (AOH) was the most prevalent Alternaria toxin, which could be produced by 95.5% of the isolates, followed by alternariol monomethyl ether (AME) (72.7%), altenuene (ALT) (52.3%), tenuazonic acid (TeA) (45.5%), tentoxin (TEN) (29.5%), and altenusin (ALS) (4.5%). A combinational analysis of mycobiota and toxigenic ability allowed us to provide comprehensive information about the production mechanisms of mycotoxins in wheat and paddy in a specific geographic area, and will be helpful for developing efficient prevention and control programs.

Keywords: Alternaria spp; Aspergillus spp.; Fusarium spp.; mycotoxins; toxigenic ability.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by Shanghai Agriculture Applied Technology Development Program, China (Grant No. X20210302) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant number 32202201).