EFS12- Book of abstracts - Contact

SESSION 3: PATHOGENESIS – EPIDEMIOLOGY AND POPULATION
GENETICS
P69 - The French Fusarium Collection: a living
resource for mycotoxin research
L. Pinson-Gadais, M. Foulongne-Oriol, N. Ponts, C. Barreau, F. Richard-
Forget
INRA UR1264 MycSA, 71 Avenue Edouard Bourlaux, CS20032, 33882 Villenave d'Ornon, France
E-mail: lpinson@bordeaux.inra.fr
Fusaria are responsible for prejudicial diseases on cereal crops worldwide, such
as crown rot and Fusarium head blight. Beyond economic losses due to infection
symptoms, these pathogens can produce several types of mycotoxins that are
harmful to livestock and humans. They are extremely diverse at the intra-specific
levels in terms of types as well as quantities of toxins that a strain can produce.
Developing appropriate strategies to limit contamination with Fusarium
mycotoxins requires a greater knowledge about this variability. We have collected
a large number of toxinogenic Fusarium strains. Our assortment now includes
about 800 strains, mostly from the species graminearum, culmorum, verticilloides,
proliferatum, and temperatum. Species were identified based on morphology and
real-time PCR. More than half of our strains were further characterized for toxin
production using biochemical and/or real-time PCR-based tools. We isolated
about 70 F. graminearum strains from either wheat or maize grains originating
from different French cereal production areas. Our results show a high
representation of 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol-producing strains in our French
samples. Within the same chemotype, we observe a large variability in toxin
production levels. The F. graminearum strains were characterized with
microsatellite markers and show a large genetic diversity. Two groups were
delineated according to their genetic background, roughly corresponding to
strains isolated from European one hand and America in the other hand. Our
results are also in agreement with the fact that only F.graminearum sensu stricto
strains seem to be detected in France so far. The demonstrated genetic and
phenotypic diversity provides a sound ground for countless downstream studies
such as genetic association and quantitative genetics to understand the
determinism of toxin production. Such information should be doubtlessly
considered in plant breeding efforts and other disease management strategies
aimed at reducing the mycotoxin risk in food and feeds. Our collection is a
valuable tool to improve our understanding of toxigenic diversity in Fusarium
species. It is managed through a database gathering all information collected on
each strain, already available upon request and soon publically available as a
web-based interface.
Keywords: Fusarium, mycotoxin, database, diversity
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