The fate of aflatoxins and fumonisins, two mycotoxins that cooccur in maize, was studied through the traditional processing of naturally contaminated maize in mawe, makume, ogi, akassa, and owo, maize-based foods common in Benin, West Africa. Levels of total aflatoxin and fumonisin were measured at the main unit operations of processing, and the unit operations that induce significant reduction...

The genetic manipulation of the biosynthesis of fungal reduced polyketides has been challenging due to the lack of knowledge on the biosynthetic mechanism, the diffi culties in the detection of the acyclic, non-aromatic metabolites, and the complexity in genetically manipulating fi lamentous fungi. Fumonisins are a group of economically important mycotoxins that contaminate maize-based food and...

Cholesterol and sphingolipids are abundant in neuronal membranes, where they help the organisation of the membrane microdomains involved in major roles such as axonal and dendritic growth, and synapse and spine stability. The aim of this study was to analyse their roles in presynaptic physiology. We first confirmed the presence of proteins of the exocytic machinery (SNARES and Ca(v)2.1 channels...

There is a great deal of evidence that altered sphingolipid metabolism is associated with fumonisin-induced animal diseases including increased apoptotic and oncotic necrosis, and carcinogenesis in rodent liver and kidney. The biochemical consequences of fumonisin disruption of sphingolipid metabolism most likely to alter cell regulation are increased free sphingoid bases and their 1-phosphates...

Fusarium verticillioides is the most common fungal pathogen associated with maize ear rot in Tanzania. In a two-year trial, we investigated the efficacy of crop protection (insecticide and/or fungicide) and fertilizer (nitrogen and/or phosphorus) treatments in reducing the occurrence of F. verticillioides and its mycotoxins in maize grown in Tanzania. Seasonal differences were seen to have a su...

Mycotoxins pose a challenge to a safe food supply worldwide, and their threat is expected to worsen with our changing climate. The need for diligence is exemplified by the discovery of fumonisin B2 in wine, which joins ochratoxin A as a mycotoxin of concern in the grape-wine chain. To elucidate the mycotoxin risk in southeastern American wine, grape samples were collected from vineyards during ...

Fumonisins are mycotoxins produced by the maize pathogen Gibberel/a fujikuroi mating population A and frequently contaminate maize. Wild-type G. fujikuroi produces four B-series fumonisins, FB" FBz, FB3 and FB4 . These toxins are identical in structure except for the number and positions of hydroxyls along their linear carbon backbone. To elucidate the genetic and biosynthetic relationships amo...

Fusarium verticillioides (teleomorph Gibberella moniliformis) is a pathogen of maize worldwide and produces fumonisins, a family of mycotoxins that have been associated with several animal diseases as well as cancer in humans. In this study, we sought to identify fungal genes that aVect fumonisin production and/or the plant–fungal interaction. We generated over 87,000 expressed sequence tags fr...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of Cuminum cyminum (C. cyminum) essential oil on the growth and FUM1 gene expression of fumonisin-producing Fusarium verticillioides (F. verticillioides) strains isolated from maize. MATERIALS AND METHODS All fungal strains were cultured on potato dextrose agar (PDA) slopes at 30°C for 7 days. The antifungal activity was evaluate...

BACKGROUND Fumonisins (a family of foodborne carcinogenic mycotoxins) cause health hazards to humans and animals in developing countries, and has also economic implications. Therefore, the efficacy of a novel environmental friendly nixtamalization procedure to make tortillas (the main staple food for the Mexican population) was investigated. METHODS Maize contaminated with 2136.67 ng/g total ...