Mycobiota and molecular characterization of Fusarium species isolated from freshly-harvested oats destined to the food industry of Brazil

• Grant number: 18/04865-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2018
• End date: June 30, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Microbiology - Biology and Physiology of Microorganisms
• Principal Investigator: Liliana de Oliveira Rocha
• Grantee: Bruno Gerfi Bertozzi
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia de Alimentos (FEA). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In recent years, the use of oats has been increased due to human consumption of theirs by-products and the use in animal feed industry, especially because of their nutritional properties. The genus Fusarium is commonly recovered from this cereal, causing diseases during field development of the plant and also producing mycotoxins that may be accumulated in grains. The contamination of the grains by mycotoxins has a major impact on human and animal health and may cause loss of quality in the final by-products of oats, resulting in losses to the economy. Considering this information, the aims of the current research are: to identify the mycobiota of freshly-harvested oat grain samples cultivated in Brazil; to characterize the isolated Fusarium species through morphological characters and molecularly based on the phylogeny of the EF1alfa locus in order to characterize potential toxigenic groups recovered from this cereal in Brazil. (AU)