Cornmeal and starch influence the dynamic of fumonisin B, A and C production and masking in Fusarium verticillioides and F. proliferatum.

Abstract Fusarium verticillioides and F. proliferatum can infect maize ears and produce fumonisins. The fumonisin B (FB) series is the most prolifically produced, followed by fumonisin C (FC), A (FA) and P (FP); moreover hidden forms of fumonisins have been detected in maize and derivatives. There is a lack of information about which maize component may affect fumonisin pattern production. Therefore, in this work we studied the role of cornmeal and corn starch, as the sole source of nutrition, in the production dynamic of all fumonisin series, hidden forms included, in different strains of F. verticillioides and F. proliferatum incubated at 25 °C for 7–45 days. Both Fusarium species produced high amounts of FB, following the chemotype FB 1  > FB 2  > FB 3 ; FC and FA were produced in lesser amounts, showing the chemotypes: FA 2  + FA 3  > FA 1 and FC 1  > FC 2  + FC 3  > FC 4 , respectively; while no FP were detected. F. verticillioides was more prolific than F. proliferatum in fumonisin production (ten times more on average) in all the tested conditions. Fumonisin production was higher in cornmeal than in starch based medium in both Fusarium species; FA and FC were detected only in the former medium. An important role of amylopectin as an inducing factor for fumonisin biosynthesis was suggested, as were acid pH conditions. Fumonisin hidden forms may occur in cornmeal medium, whereas they were never found at significant levels in corn starch medium.