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Towards Managing and Controlling Aflatoxin Producers Within Aspergillus Species in Infested Rice Grains Collected from Local Markets in Kenya

Rice grains can be attacked by a range of pathogens, including Aspergillus species, which can cause the accumulation of aflatoxins and represent a serious threat to the consumers. Aflatoxins are secondary metabolites synthesized by Aspergillus species and naturally occur in various foodstuffs. In th...

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Autores principales: Douksouna, Youmma, Masanga, Joel, Nyerere, Andrew, Runo, Steven, Ambang, Zachée
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6784266/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31546792
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins11090544
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author Douksouna, Youmma
Masanga, Joel
Nyerere, Andrew
Runo, Steven
Ambang, Zachée
author_facet Douksouna, Youmma
Masanga, Joel
Nyerere, Andrew
Runo, Steven
Ambang, Zachée
author_sort Douksouna, Youmma
collection PubMed
description Rice grains can be attacked by a range of pathogens, including Aspergillus species, which can cause the accumulation of aflatoxins and represent a serious threat to the consumers. Aflatoxins are secondary metabolites synthesized by Aspergillus species and naturally occur in various foodstuffs. In this study, we sought to analyze the prevalence of aflatoxin-producing Aspergillus spp. in rice grains currently sold in Kenyan local markets. We analyzed a total of 98 samples randomly collected and primarily analyzed to observe moisture content and fungal growth. We then isolated Aspergillus species, characterized them morphologically and using the Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) primers. Finally, we screened them for aflatoxin-producing isolates targeting Norsolorinic Acid (nor-1) and Versicolorin (ver-1) specific genes involved in aflatoxin biosynthesis. We observed that all tested samples were contaminated. The highest prevalence of Aspergillus species and aflatoxigenic fungal species, had values of 66% and 36.4% for nor-1 and ver-1, respectively. In total, 66% of all isolates were confirmed to be aflatoxin producers. The occurrence of high contamination levels of Aspergillus species points to the possibility of production of aflatoxins in rice grains. This work provides a baseline for future studies on the occurrence of mycotoxigenic fungal species in rice grains being sold in local markets and strategies to control these aflatoxigenic strains at pre- and post-harvest levels.
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spelling pubmed-67842662019-10-16 Towards Managing and Controlling Aflatoxin Producers Within Aspergillus Species in Infested Rice Grains Collected from Local Markets in Kenya Douksouna, Youmma Masanga, Joel Nyerere, Andrew Runo, Steven Ambang, Zachée Toxins (Basel) Article Rice grains can be attacked by a range of pathogens, including Aspergillus species, which can cause the accumulation of aflatoxins and represent a serious threat to the consumers. Aflatoxins are secondary metabolites synthesized by Aspergillus species and naturally occur in various foodstuffs. In this study, we sought to analyze the prevalence of aflatoxin-producing Aspergillus spp. in rice grains currently sold in Kenyan local markets. We analyzed a total of 98 samples randomly collected and primarily analyzed to observe moisture content and fungal growth. We then isolated Aspergillus species, characterized them morphologically and using the Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) primers. Finally, we screened them for aflatoxin-producing isolates targeting Norsolorinic Acid (nor-1) and Versicolorin (ver-1) specific genes involved in aflatoxin biosynthesis. We observed that all tested samples were contaminated. The highest prevalence of Aspergillus species and aflatoxigenic fungal species, had values of 66% and 36.4% for nor-1 and ver-1, respectively. In total, 66% of all isolates were confirmed to be aflatoxin producers. The occurrence of high contamination levels of Aspergillus species points to the possibility of production of aflatoxins in rice grains. This work provides a baseline for future studies on the occurrence of mycotoxigenic fungal species in rice grains being sold in local markets and strategies to control these aflatoxigenic strains at pre- and post-harvest levels. MDPI 2019-09-19 /pmc/articles/PMC6784266/ /pubmed/31546792 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins11090544 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Douksouna, Youmma
Masanga, Joel
Nyerere, Andrew
Runo, Steven
Ambang, Zachée
Towards Managing and Controlling Aflatoxin Producers Within Aspergillus Species in Infested Rice Grains Collected from Local Markets in Kenya
title Towards Managing and Controlling Aflatoxin Producers Within Aspergillus Species in Infested Rice Grains Collected from Local Markets in Kenya
title_full Towards Managing and Controlling Aflatoxin Producers Within Aspergillus Species in Infested Rice Grains Collected from Local Markets in Kenya
title_fullStr Towards Managing and Controlling Aflatoxin Producers Within Aspergillus Species in Infested Rice Grains Collected from Local Markets in Kenya
title_full_unstemmed Towards Managing and Controlling Aflatoxin Producers Within Aspergillus Species in Infested Rice Grains Collected from Local Markets in Kenya
title_short Towards Managing and Controlling Aflatoxin Producers Within Aspergillus Species in Infested Rice Grains Collected from Local Markets in Kenya
title_sort towards managing and controlling aflatoxin producers within aspergillus species in infested rice grains collected from local markets in kenya
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6784266/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31546792
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins11090544
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