Fusarium musae from Diseased Bananas and Human Patients: Susceptibility to Fungicides Used in Clinical and Agricultural Settings

Abstract

Fusarium musae belongs to the Fusarium fujikuroi species complex. It causes crown rot disease in banana but also keratitis and skin infections as well as systemic infections in immunocompromised patients. Antifungal treatments in clinical and agricultural settings rely mostly on molecules belonging to the azole class. Given the potential risk of pathogen spread from food to clinical settings, the goal of the work was to define the level of susceptibility to different azoles of a worldwide population of F. musae. Eight fungicides used in agriculture and five antifungals used in clinical settings (4 azoles and amphotericin B) were tested using the CLSI (Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute) protocol methodology on 19 F. musae strains collected from both infected patients and bananas. The level of susceptibility to the different active molecules was not dependent on the source of isolation with the exception of fenbuconazole and difenoconazole which had a higher efficiency on banana-isolated strains. Minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of the different molecules ranged from 0.12–0.25 mg/L for prochloraz to more than 16 mg/L for tetraconazole and fenbuconazole. Compared to the F. verticillioides, F. musae MICs were higher suggesting the importance of monitoring the potential future spread of this species also in clinical settings.

Exploring Mitogenomes Diversity of Fusarium musae from Banana Fruits and Human Patients

“…This study, analysing the mitochondrial genomes of 18 F. musae strains, confirms previous observations based on nuclear genes (TEF and RPB2) [5,7], which showed that F. musae strains from banana and human patients are interspersed in the species tree. This indirectly confirms the ability of F. musae to cross-infect distant hosts.…”

“…Based on multilocus sequence typing, F. musae can be distinguished from its sister species F. verticillioides [2]. The two species show a diverse susceptibility to azoles, with F. musae having a higher tolerance to some fungicides compared to F. verticillioides [7].…”

Voriconazole Treatment Induces a Conserved Sterol/Pleiotropic Drug Resistance Regulatory Network, including an Alternative Ergosterol Biosynthesis Pathway, in the Clinically Important FSSC Species, Fusarium keratoplasticum

“…Some of these isolates exhibit resistance to multiple antifungals [ 21 ] mainly associated with cyp51A TR34/L98H or TR46/Y121F/T289A mutations [ 22 , 23 ] and, rather concerningly, they are now spreading globally [ 24 ]. A similar trend of reduced azole susceptibility in isolates of the Fusarium solani [ 25 ] and Fusarium fujikuroi [ 26 ] species complexes of agriculture and human origin has been recently reported.…”

Control of crown rot with potassium carbonate in banana cv. Enano Gigante

“…However, it is affected by several postharvest fungal diseases, including crown rot (CR) (González‐Jiménez et al., 2023; Kulkarni et al., 2021), anthracnose (Vilaplana, Hurtado, & Valencia‐Chamorro, 2018; Vilaplana, Pazmiño, & Valencia‐Chamorro, 2018) and cigar rot (Youssef et al., 2020), with CR being the most economically important disease (Kamel et al., 2016; Krauss & Johanson, 2000; Lassois et al., 2011; Yahan et al., 2019). CR is caused by a fungal complex, Colletotrichum musae (Cm), Lasiodiplodia theobromae (Kulkarni et al., 2021) and Fusarium musae (Tava et al., 2021). The control of decay is carried out mainly with conventional synthetic chemical fungicides such as prochloraz, imazalil and thiabendazole (TBZ); however, the prolonged use of these fungicides has various negative effects such as environmental contamination, residue accumulation in the fruit above permissible levels and the appearance of fungal strains resistant to fungicides (Gatto et al., 2011; Jinasena et al., 2011; Mari et al., 2003).…”