Sustainable Strategies to Counteract Mycotoxins Contamination and Cowpea Weevil in Chickpea Seeds during Post-Harvest

Patulin-degrading enzymes sources, structures, and mechanisms: A review

Patulin (PAT), a fungal secondary metabolite with multiple toxicities, is an unavoidable contaminant in fruit and vegetable processing, posing potential health risks to consumers and causing significant economic losses to the global food industry. Traditional control strategies, such as physical and chemical methods, face several challenges, including low efficiency, high costs, and unverified safety. In contrast, microbial degradation of patulin is considered a more efficient and environmentally friendly approach, which has become a popular research focus. However, there is still insufficient research on the key degradation enzymes involved in microorganisms. Therefore, this review comprehensively summarizes recent research progress on the biological degradation of patulin, with a focus on microbial species capable of degrading patulin, the degradation enzymes they express, potential degradation mechanisms, and the toxicity of degradation products, while providing prospects for future research. It offers valuable insights for controlling patulin in food and stimulates further investigation. Ultimately, this review aims to promote the development of efficient and eco-friendly methods to mitigate patulin contamination in fruits and vegetables.

Research diversity and advances in simultaneous removal of multi-mycotoxin

Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by different fungal species under specific environmental conditions. The common and regulated mycotoxins are such as deoxynivalenol (DON), zearalenone (ZEN), ochratoxin (OTA), aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), and fumonisins (FB). These mycotoxins are highly regulated in feed and food because their effects start to exert from their lowest exposures and are abundant in our common environment. However, there are other emerging mycotoxins such as apicidin, beauvericin, aurofusarin, and enniatins which are also harmful. Thus, making a total of around 500 forms of mycotoxins. The existence of mycotoxins in feed and food has a significant impact on animal and human health, which ultimately, slows down economic growth globally. According to this review, different approaches to removing multi-mycotoxin separately or simultaneously have been stated. Mostly, the review focused on the simultaneous removal of different multiple mycotoxins. This is because the current studies show a growing trend in reporting the co-existence of multiple mycotoxins in feed and food materials, however, most detoxifying approaches are for singular mycotoxins. Therefore, the physical, chemical, and biological approaches to remove multi-mycotoxin have been elucidated as well as their advantages and limitations. Furthermore, the authors give suggestions on the way forward to reduce exposure to mycotoxins and diminish their health effects in society. Lastly, the authors emphasized introducing more stringent limits for co-existing mycotoxins, especially those that have the same health effects by acting synergistically, such as AFB1 and OTA, which both act as carcinogenic agents.

Ozone Treatment as an Approach to Induce Specialized Compounds in Melissa officinalis Plants

Plants are constantly subjected to environmental changes that deeply affect their metabolism, leading to the inhibition or synthesis of "specialized" compounds, small organic molecules that play a fundamental role in adaptative responses. In this work, Melissa officinalis L. (an aromatic plant broadly cultivated due to the large amounts of secondary metabolites) plants were exposed to realistic ozone (O3) dosages (80 ppb, 5 h day-1) for 35 consecutive days with the aim to evaluate its potential use as elicitor of specialized metabolite production. Ozone induced stomatal dysfunction throughout the whole experiment, associated with a low photosynthetic performance, a decrease in the potential energy conversion activity of PSII, and an alteration in the total chlorophyll content (-35, -36, -10, and -17% as average compared to the controls, respectively). The production of hydrogen peroxide at 7 days from the beginning of exposure (+47%) resulted in lipid peroxidation and visible injuries. This result suggests metabolic disturbance within the cell and a concomitant alteration in cell homeostasis, probably due to a limited activation of antioxidative mechanisms. Moderate accumulated doses of O3 triggered the accumulation of hydroxycinnamic acids and the up-regulation of the genes encoding enzymes involved in rosmarinic acid, phenylpropanoid, and flavonoid biosynthesis. While high accumulated doses of O3 significantly enhanced the content of hydroxybenzoic acid and flavanone glycosides. Our study shows that the application of O3 at the investigated concentration for a limited period (such as two/three weeks) may become a useful tool to stimulate bioactive compounds production in M. officinalis.

A comparative review on methods of detection and quantification of mycotoxins in solid food and feed: a focus on cereals and nuts

Many emerging factors and circumstances urge the need to develop and optimize the detection and quantification techniques of mycotoxins in solid food and feed. The diversity of mycotoxins, which have different properties and affinities, makes the standardization of the analytical procedures and the adoption of a single protocol that covers the attributes of all mycotoxins a tedious or even an impossible mission. Several modifications and improvements have been undergone in order to optimize the performance of these methods including the extraction solvents, the extraction methods, the clean-up procedures, and the analytical techniques. The techniques range from the rapid screening methods, which lack sensitivity and specificity such as TLC, to a spectrum of more advanced protocols, namely, ELISA, HPLC, and GC-MS and LC-MS/MS. This review aims at assessing the current studies related to these analytical techniques of mycotoxins in solid food and feed. It discusses and evaluates, through a critical approach, various sample treatment techniques, and provides an in-depth examination of different mycotoxin detection methods. Furthermore, it includes a comparison of their actual accuracy and a thorough analysis of the observed benefits and drawbacks.

Isolation and characterization of Fusarium spp. From unhatched eggs of Caretta caretta in Tuscany (Italy)

Sea Turtle Egg Fusariosis (STEF) is a worldwide emergent fungal disease affecting eggs and causing embryos mortality in turtle's nests such as those of Caretta caretta. It is caused by a complex of species belonging to Fusarium genus, particularly those included in the Fusarium Solani Species Complex (FSSC). During the samplings carried out in summer 2020 along the Tuscany coastlines (Italy), C. caretta eggs showed clinical signs resembling those caused by STEF. A total of 32 fungal isolates were obtained from lesioned eggs whose molecular characterization allowing identifying as belonging to FSSC / Neocosmospora spp., Fusarium oxysporum Species Complex (FOSC) / F. oxysporum and Fusarium nodosum, i.e., fungal genera and speciesincluding also well-known plant pathogens. Isolates inoculated on several plant hosts did not result in any pathogenic activity but F. nodosum causing, on wheat spikes, disease symptoms.This is the first time F. nodosum has been isolated from portions of eggs showing evident signs of fungal infection. This work represents the first report of Fusarium spp. isolated from C. caretta eggs showing lesions resembling those caused by STEF on Tuscan coast thus posing a significant concern to loggerhead sea turtle conservation also in this region.

Novel Strategies for the Biodegradation and Detoxification of Mycotoxins in Post-Harvest Grain

Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by filamentous fungi belonging, in particular, to the Aspergillus, Fusarium, and Penicillium genera [...].

Current ambient ozone levels mitigate the effect of Puccinia striiformis on wheat: Is Mediterranean wheat ready for pre-industrial background ozone levels?

Increasing surface ozone is a main concern for crop production in the Global Change framework, especially in the Mediterranean basin where climate conditions favor its photochemical formation. Meanwhile, increasing common crop diseases, such as yellow rust, one of the most important pathogens affecting global wheat production has been detected in the area in recent decades. However, the impact of O₃ on the occurrence and impact of fungal diseases is scarcely understood. A close-to-field-conditions assay (Open Top Chamber facility) situated in a Mediterranean cereal rainfed farming area was carried out to study the impact of increasing O₃ levels and N-fertilization on spontaneous fungal outbreaks in wheat. Four O₃-fumigation levels reproducing pre-industrial to future pollutant atmospheres with additional 20 and 40 nL L^-1 over the ambient levels were considered (7 h-mean ranging from 28 to 86 nL L^-1). Two top N-fertilization supplementations (100 and 200 kg ha^-1) were nested within the O₃ treatments; foliar damage, pigment content and gas exchange parameters were measured. Pre-industrial natural background O₃ levels strongly favored the yellow rust infection, where the O₃-polluted levels currently observed at the farm highly benefited the crop, mitigating the presence of rust by 22 %. However, future expected high O₃-levels neutralized the beneficial infection-controlling effect by inducing early wheat senescence, decreasing the chlorophyll index of the older leaves by up to 43 % under the higher O₃ exposure. Nitrogen promoted the rust infection by up to 49.5 % without interacting with the O₃-factor. Achieving future air quality standards might require considering new varietal improvement programs, to be able to adapt crops to an increased pathogen tolerance without requiring the assistance provided by O₃-pollution.