EFS12- Book of abstracts - Contact

SESSION 2: SECONDARY METABOLITES – BIOCHEMISTRY,
BIOSYNTHESIS, FEED AND FOOD SAFETY
P24 - The impact of Fusarium and Microdochium
species on the safety and quality of UK malting barley
R. V. Ray 1 , L. K. Nielsen 1 , S. G. Edwards 2 , D. J. Cook 1
1 University of Nottingham, School of Biosciences, Sutton Bonington Campus, Loughborough,
Leicestershire, LE12 5RD, United Kingdo; 2 Harper Adams University, Newport, Shropshire, TF10 8NB,
United Kingdom
E-mail: rumiana.ray@nottingham.ac.uk
Fusarium head blight (FHB) can cause significant reductions of yield, safety and
quality of cereals. The SAFEMalt project (Strategies Against Fusarium Effective in
MALTing barley) is an UK based 3-year multi-partner research initiative spanning
the malting barley supply chain from crop breeder through agronomist and
merchant to brewer. The ultimate output of the project is the development of a
targeted toolkit for the protection of malting barley quality.
The first objective of the project was to identify the predominant
Fusarium/Microdochium species in UK barley and to evaluate the impact of their
sub-acute infections on the malting and brewing characteristics of commercially
grown spring barley. Species specific real-time PCR and mycotoxin quantification
assays were carried out on spring malting barleys collected in 2010 and 2011 and
on selected samples from previous mycotoxin screening survey between 2007
and 2009. The predominant Fusarium species present in UK malting barley in
2010 (n = 88) and in 2011 (n = 76) were F. avenaceum, F. poae, and F. tricinctum
with each species detected in 80-100% of all samples. The predominant
Microdochium species was M. nivale. The main mycotoxins detected in 2010 and
in 2011 were HT2/T2 and nivalenol correlating positively with quantified DNA of F.
langsethiae and F. poae, respectively. Selected malting barley cultivars were
further micro malted and subjected to malt and wort analysis of key quality
parameters. Preliminary results suggest that the immediate effects of
contamination with F. avenaceum and M. nivale were increased water sensitivity
of barley and decreased wort filtration volume. Fungal biomass of F. poae and F.
langsethiae correlated with increased wort free amino nitrogen. Further analysis
of malting and brewing quality parameters on additional barley samples collected
in 2011 is in progress.
Keywords: Fusarium, Microdochium, Malting barley, quality
116