Background: The aim of study was to investigate mycotoxin profiles in the grain of spring lines of Triticum monococcum (12 lines), T. dicoccum (13 lines) and T. spelta (five lines), in comparison to the T. aestivum cultivar Sumai-3 which is resistant to Fusarium head blight. The grain was obtained from control heads and heads artificially inoculated in the field with Fusarium culmorum. Mycotoxins were determined by LC-MS/MS.
Results: A total of 11 toxins were identified in control grain samples. Deoxynivalenol (DON) concentrations exceeded 0.5 mg kg(-1) in only three samples of T. monococcum grain and in one sample of T. dicoccum grain. Inoculation with F. culmorum resulted in a substantial increase in the concentrations of DON (to 63 mg kg(-1)) in the T. monococcum and DON-3-glucoside (to 5.6 mg kg(-1)) in the T. dicoccum. Inoculation contributed to a drop in tentoxin levels (by 57% in T. spelta) and to an increase of cyclodepsipeptide concentrations (in particular enniatins B and B(1)) being two-fold (T. monococcum) to four-fold (T. dicoccum) higher on average than in control samples. The Sumai-3 responded to inoculation with nearly a two-fold drop in the levels of the cyclodepsipeptides.
Conclusion: The results of a discriminant analysis for all identified toxins indicate that einkorn, emmer and spelt differ significantly with regard to the mycotoxin profiles of their grain.