Toxigenic potential of Fusarium culmorum strains isolated from French wheat

Abstract

Sixty F. culmorum strains were isolated from wheat grains collected from different wheat-growing areas in France and from different cultivars. The isolates were grown on autoclaved wheat grain to assess their ability to produce trichothecenes and zearalenone. Fungal biomass was evaluated through the ergosterol grain content. All the isolates produced zearalenone (0.39-1660mg kg^-1). Thirty-five of the 60 F. culmorum produced nivalenol (0.11-11.7mg kg ^-1), 12 of 60 produced fusarenone X (0.05-8.42mg kg ^-1), five of 60 produced 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol (0.48- 27.7mg kg ^-1), 13 of 60 produced 3-acetyldeoxyni-valenol (0.07-21.0mg kg ^-1) and 24 of 60 produced deoxynivalenol (0.92-51.9mg kg ^-1). According to the results, the distribution of the different chemotypes as well as the high and the low mycotoxin-producing Fusarium strains could not be associated to geographical origin.