Mutagens affect food and water biodeteriorating fungi

Abstract

Many areas of food mycology could be affected detrimentally by mutation of wild type fungi. Some of these will contact mutagens from pre-isolation to experimentation and the effect on fungi isolated from mycotoxin-contaminated food is assessed for the first time in this review. However, this mutagen issue is not considered by other authors in primary research papers, which is relevant to molecular biology techniques for gene sequencing, phylogenetics, diagnostics and mycotoxin production. The presence of mutagens is anathema to methods for DNA analysis at the experimental design level and concepts such as cryptic species and correlating anamorphs with teleomorphs are affected. Strains held in culture collections may be artifacts. Methods to ameliorate the problem are provided herein.

Predominant mycotoxins, mycotoxigenic fungi and climate change related to wine

“…Some fungi are highly sporing, biasing the results of the isolation methods and endophytic fungi may not be isolated efficiently (if they exist in the wine system). Also, mutagens could alter the fungi that are isolated so that morphological or mycotoxin changes occur (Paterson & Lima, 2015) and, for example, this could occur through the application of pesticides in vineyards.…”

“…carbendazim) reduce fungi but stimulate OTA production (Amézqueta et al, 2009). Finally, the use of pesticides in the vineyard may result in mutation of the fungal population (Paterson & Lima, 2015) as some pesticides are mutagenic. The fungi may be unrepresentative of the wild type fungi and which requires consideration by researchers in the field.…”

“…Will it be possible to produce wine (or the same wine) in (a) southern Europe and (b) parts of Australia and USA, as temperatures become increasingly high? High temperature will make growing the crop impossible in some areas and the mycotoxin issue will become irrelevant (Paterson & Lima, 2012;Paterson, et al, 2013Paterson, et al, , 2014Paterson, et al, , 2015. This scenario is likely to occur in large areas of land normally suitable for grape production (Paterson & Lima, 2011b).…”

“…Another scenario is that grapes will be grown in new land resulting in low levels of mycotoxins because of the "Parasites Lost phenomenon", where new growth crops often have fewer pests and diseases (Paterson & Lima, 2010a, Paterson & Lima, 2010bPaterson et al, 2014;Paterson & Lima, 2015). However, an opposing factor may be a reduction of natural competing organisms which act as a form of biological control against the toxigenic fungi.…”

Editorial overview: Food mycology

“…So let us consider them: The SI starts sensibly with a discussion on how even the nomenclature of fungi requires revision (Hawksworth [1]) because diverse morphs of a single pleomorphic species can no longer have different scientific names. This is followed by a general opinion paper that warns of the dangers of mutagens affecting FF which could influence preservation, taxonomy, biodiversity estimations, mycotoxin determinations from strains, and general studies on the physiology of these organisms (Paterson and Lima [2]). An issue which nobody can ignore is that of CC.…”