Investigation of polyphenol resistance of Aspergillus flavus on Cornmeal media

Cornmeal agar (CMA) is a good to model natural conditions (low C and N, high antioxidants, crude fat) for phytopathogenic fungi. Different CMA media was prepared to model the maize kernel as growth environment for Aspergillus flavus, where stress resistance and aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) production were tested. The CMA medium with high polyphenol and low fatty acid content did not support the mycelial growth and high AFB1 production but the sclerotia development of the cultures. High fatty acid content in the CMA exceeded the inhibitory effect of antioxidant polyphenols of corn and low concentration of AFB1 was detected. Glucose supplement of CMA induced AFB1 production proving the need for free carbon source for the secondary metabolite pathway. The tolerance of the fungus against salt and cell membrane stress was lowered on CMA. At higher fatty acid concentration, the aflatoxin B1 production cannot be hindered by the natural antioxidants and that is important in selection of resistant corn hybrids

Secondary metabolites in fungus-plant interactions

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Secondary metabolites in fungus-plant interactions

Fungi and plants are rich sources of thousands of secondary metabolites. The genetically coded possibilities for secondary metabolite production, the stimuli of the production, and the special phytotoxins basically determine the microscopic fungi-host plant interactions and the pathogenic lifestyle of fungi. The rewiew introduces plant secondary metabolites usually with antifungal effect as well as the importance of signaling molecules in induced systemic resistance and systemic acquired resistance processes. The review also concerns the mimicing of plant effector molecules like auxins, gibberellins and abscisic acid by fungal secondary metabolites that modulate plant growth or even can subvert the plant defense responses such as programmed cell death to gain nutrients for fungal growth and colonization. It also looks through the special secondary metabolite production and host selective toxins of some significant fungal pathogens and the plant response in form of phytoalexin production. New results coming from genome and transcriptional analyses in context of selected fungal pathogens and their hosts are also discussed

Survey of the aflatoxin gene cluster in Aspergilli from Hungarian crops

Climate changes in Europe, which is characterized by the decrease of rainy days and the higher average temperature at summer, significantly increase the spreading of Aspergillus species and aflatoxin B1 contamination of the staple food and feed materials. The aim of our study was to estimate the possibility of the aflatoxin production of the Aspergilli on crops. From the isolates that were gained from crop samples, higher than 40% of the Aspergillus isolates contained norA, aflR and omtA genes from the aflatoxin genes cluster. Most of these isolates (63%) showed high homology with A. flavus, while three isolates showed high homology to A. tritici/A. candidus, one to A. cristatus/A. amstelodami and one strain showed the highest homology to A. tritici. Six from the A. flavus isolates (85.7%) with norA, aflR and omtA genes could produce aflatoxin B1 on malate extract agar medium. Parallel PCR and toxin measurements are recommended to evaluate the potentiality of aflatoxin production

Az aflatoxin képződése mezőgazdasági termékeken

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Foodborne Listeria monocytogenes: A Real Challenge in Quality Control

Listeria monocytogenes is a foodborne pathogen, and the detection and differentiation of this bacterium from the nonpathogenic Listeria species are of great importance to the food industry. Differentiation of Listeria species is very difficult, even with the sophisticated MALDI-TOF MS technique because of the close genetic relationship of the species and the usual gene transfer. The present paper emphasizes the difficulties of the differentiation through the standardized detection and confirmation according to ISO 11290-1:1996 and basic available L. monocytogenes detection methods and tests (such as API Listeria test, MALDI-TOF MS analysis, and hly gene PCR). With the increase of reports on the pathogenesis of atypical Listeria strains in humans, the significance of species level determination has become questionable, especially in food quality control, and the detection of pathogenic characteristics seems to be more relevant

Effect of Different Supplementary Diets on Growing Rate, Fat and Protein Contents of Flesh Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio) Fingerlings

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Comparison of gene expression signatures of diamide, H(2)O(2 )and menadione exposed Aspergillus nidulans cultures – linking genome-wide transcriptional changes to cellular physiology

BACKGROUND: In addition to their cytotoxic nature, reactive oxygen species (ROS) are also signal molecules in diverse cellular processes in eukaryotic organisms. Linking genome-wide transcriptional changes to cellular physiology in oxidative stress-exposed Aspergillus nidulans cultures provides the opportunity to estimate the sizes of peroxide (O(2)(2-)), superoxide (O(2)(•-)) and glutathione/glutathione disulphide (GSH/GSSG) redox imbalance responses. RESULTS: Genome-wide transcriptional changes triggered by diamide, H(2)O(2 )and menadione in A. nidulans vegetative tissues were recorded using DNA microarrays containing 3533 unique PCR-amplified probes. Evaluation of LOESS-normalized data indicated that 2499 gene probes were affected by at least one stress-inducing agent. The stress induced by diamide and H(2)O(2 )were pulse-like, with recovery after 1 h exposure time while no recovery was observed with menadione. The distribution of stress-responsive gene probes among major physiological functional categories was approximately the same for each agent. The gene group sizes solely responsive to changes in intracellular O(2)(2-), O(2)(•- )concentrations or to GSH/GSSG redox imbalance were estimated at 7.7, 32.6 and 13.0 %, respectively. Gene groups responsive to diamide, H(2)O(2 )and menadione treatments and gene groups influenced by GSH/GSSG, O(2)(2- )and O(2)(•- )were only partly overlapping with distinct enrichment profiles within functional categories. Changes in the GSH/GSSG redox state influenced expression of genes coding for PBS2 like MAPK kinase homologue, PSK2 kinase homologue, AtfA transcription factor, and many elements of ubiquitin tagging, cell division cycle regulators, translation machinery proteins, defense and stress proteins, transport proteins as well as many enzymes of the primary and secondary metabolisms. Meanwhile, a separate set of genes encoding transport proteins, CpcA and JlbA amino acid starvation-responsive transcription factors, and some elements of sexual development and sporulation was ROS responsive. CONCLUSION: The existence of separate O(2)(2-), O(2)(•- )and GSH/GSSG responsive gene groups in a eukaryotic genome has been demonstrated. Oxidant-triggered, genome-wide transcriptional changes should be analyzed considering changes in oxidative stress-responsive physiological conditions and not correlating them directly to the chemistry and concentrations of the oxidative stress-inducing agent