Direct and host-mediated interactions between Fusarium pathogens and herbivorous arthropods in cereals

Fusarium head blight and fusarium ear rot diseases of cereal crops are significant global problems, causing yield and grain quality losses and accumulation of harmful mycotoxins. Safety limits have been set by the European Commission for several Fusarium-produced mycotoxins; mitigating the risk of breaching these limits is of great importance to crop producers as part of an integrated approach to disease management. This review examines current knowledge regarding the role of arthropods in disease epidemiology. In the field, diseased host plants are likely to interact with arthropods that may substantially impact the disease by influencing spread or condition of the shared host. For example, disease progress by Fusarium graminearum can be doubled if wheat plants are aphid-infested. Arthropods have been implicated in disease epidemiology in several cases and the evidence ranges from observed correlations between arthropod infestation and increased disease severity and mycotoxin accumulation, to experimental evidence for arthropod infestation causing heightened pathogen prevalence in hosts. Fusarium pathogens differ in spore production and impact on host volatile chemistry, which influences their suitability for arthropod dispersal. Herbivores may allow secondary fungal infection after wounding a plant or they may alter host susceptibility by inducing changes in plant defence pathways. Post-harvest, during storage, arthropods may also interact with Fusarium pathogens, with instances of fungivory and altered behaviour by arthropods towards volatile chemicals from infected grain. Host-mediated indirect pathogen–arthropod interactions are discussed alongside a comprehensive review of evidence for direct interactions where arthropods act as vectors for inoculum

Mycotoxins in beverages: Occurrence, regulation, economic impact and cost-effectiveness of preventive and removal methods

Publisher Copyright: © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.The risk of mycotoxins is a global issue and nowadays there is an increasing concern with their potential effects on human health. Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by filamentous fungi, whose occurrence in beverages is global. Worldwide regulations (with significant emphasis in the EU) are paying special attention to this matter and many beverages have been already affected by regulations establishing maximum levels of mycotoxins. Ochratoxin A, patulin, Alternaria toxins, deoxynivalenol, and aflatoxin M1 are the most commonly mycotoxins found in beverages. All of them have been shown to cause health hazards and are related to significant economic losses in the beverage industry. This chapter provides an overview of the prevalence of mycotoxins, related current global legislation, and their economic impact on beverages. Finally, several actual methods to prevent and remove mycotoxins from beverages are reviewed and a brief analysis about the need to conduct further research about the cost effectiveness of these methods is provided.Peer reviewe