Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
4368769 | International Journal of Food Microbiology | 2011 | 5 Pages |
Contamination of cereals with mycotoxins such as beauvericin (BEA), enniatins (Ens) and moniliformin (MON) is mainly caused by Fusarium avenaceum and F. tricinctum. This is a world-wide problem which requires rapid and sensitive detection methods. To allow for high throughput screening of large numbers of samples, a diagnostic PCR method was developed for the simultaneous detection of F. avenaceum and F. tricinctum. The interspecific divergence found in the Fusarium-specific CYP51C gene was used to design species-specific PCR primers. The specificity of the assay was demonstrated for DNA samples extracted from a wide range of Fusarium species belonging to the Fusarium head blight (FHB) complex, as well as for naturally-infected grain samples. The PCR-amplified products were digested with the restriction enzyme XbaI to enable differentiation between F. avenaceum and F. tricinctum. This PCR- restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) assay proved to be a simple and relatively inexpensive method highly suited for routine detection and identification of F. avenaceum and F. tricinctum in wheat samples.
Research Highlights►Fungal isolation/use of wheat samples. ►F. avenaceum/F. tricinctum species-specific CYP51C primers. ►CYP51C-PCR assays. ►CYP51C-RFLP analysis using the XbaI enzyme.