Volatilized Metabolites Produced by Soilborne Aspergillus flavus Regulate Fungal Conidiation, and Production of Secondary Metabolites.

ABSTRACT: Corn plants are susceptible to infection by fungi such as Aspergillus flavus that have the potential to produce several types of mycotoxins, one of the most potent ones known to exist is aflatoxin. Since aflatoxin contaminated corn must be destroyed, causing annual monetary losses in billions of dollars, it would be helpful to detect the presence of aflatoxin producing fungi at pre-harvest and pre-planting stages. To this end, it may be possible to capture volatile organic compounds these fungi produce while overwintering in the soil or while infecting corn plants. In this study, we acquired A. flavus VOCs from conidia and sclerotia, while residing in the soil environment. We concluded that soilborne conidia and sclerotia have specific VOC signatures, and sclerotia tend to emit specific VO

SUBMITTER: Castano-Duque L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12827406 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature