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Review
. 2023 Sep 18;15(9):577.
doi: 10.3390/toxins15090577.

Aspergillus flavus and Fusarium verticillioides and Their Main Mycotoxins: Global Distribution and Scenarios of Interactions in Maize

Xiangrong Chen  1   2 , Mohamed F Abdallah  1   3 , Sofie Landschoot  2 , Kris Audenaert  2 , Sarah De Saeger  4   5 , Xiangfeng Chen  6 , Andreja Rajkovic  1
Affiliations
Review

Aspergillus flavus and Fusarium verticillioides and Their Main Mycotoxins: Global Distribution and Scenarios of Interactions in Maize

Xiangrong Chen et al. Toxins (Basel). .

Abstract

Maize is frequently contaminated with multiple mycotoxins, especially those produced by Aspergillus flavus and Fusarium verticillioides. As mycotoxin contamination is a critical factor that destabilizes global food safety, the current review provides an updated overview of the (co-)occurrence of A. flavus and F. verticillioides and (co-)contamination of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and fumonisin B1 (FB1) in maize. Furthermore, it summarizes their interactions in maize. The gathered data predict the (co-)occurrence and virulence of A. flavus and F. verticillioides would increase worldwide, especially in European cold climate countries. Studies on the interaction of both fungi regarding their growth mainly showed antagonistic interactions in vitro or in planta conditions. However, the (co-)contamination of AFB1 and FB1 has risen worldwide in the last decade. Primarily, this co-contamination increased by 32% in Europe (2010-2020 vs. 1992-2009). This implies that fungi and mycotoxins would severely threaten European-grown maize.

Keywords: Aspergillus flavus; Fusarium verticillioides; aflatoxin B1; co-occurrence; food safety; fumonisin B1; maize.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A world map showing the number of studies that surveyed the (co-)occurrence of A. flavus and F. verticillioides. The number of studies is represented as a bar chart for A. flavus (red color), F. verticillioides (green color), and both fungi (blue color).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Boxplots show the percentage of contaminated maize samples with A. flavus, F. verticillioides, and both fungi in survey studies from Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe. The data points are colored according to the year of sampling.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The reported mean values of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and fumonisin B1 (FB1) in studies from different continents. The red lines show the EU maximum limit for AFB1 (20 µg/kg) for cereals and FB1 (2000 µg/kg) for unprocessed maize.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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