Fumonisin production by Gibberella fujikuroi strains from Pinus species

Fumonisins are important mycotoxins basically produced by strains from the Gibberella fujikuroi species complex (with anamorphs in Fusarium genus) which contaminate food and feed products representing a risk to human and animal health. In this work, we report for the first time the fumonisin production of Fusarium moniliforme Sheldon strains associated to edible pine nuts of Pinus pinea. P. pinea is an important and widely distributed Pinus species in the Mediterranean area where their pine nuts are consumed raw or slightly processed in diverse food products. In this work, characterization and further identification of those strains were performed by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphisms (PCR-RFLPs) of the intergenic spacer region of the rDNA (IGS) with the aid of the eight mating populations (A-H) described for G. fujikuroi species complex. The method was powerful to detect polymorphism, allowing discrimination between individuals and could be used to study the genetic relationships among them and within the G. fujikuroi species complex. Fusarium strains associated to Pinus radiata were also included in the present study. These strains did not produce fumonisins and showed no close relation with the strains isolated from P. pinea. The approach used in this work was rapid and proved to be efficient to assist identification and to characterize and analyse relatedness of new isolates within the G. fujikuroi species complex. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.