Cereal Chem 72:205-209  |  VIEW ARTICLE

Occurrence of Deoxynivalenol (DON), 3-Acetyl-DON, Zearalenone, and Ergosterol in Winter Rye Inoculated with Fusarium culmorum.

J. Perkowski, T. Miedaner, H. H. Geiger, H.-M. Müller, and J. Chelkowski. Copyright 1995 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

To investigate the occurrence of Fusarium culmorum mycotoxins and ergosterol (ERG) in winter rye, 29 single-cross hybrids were artificially inoculated at anthesis in 1992. Single-cross hybrids revealed a significant genotypic differentiation for head blight rating and relative grain-weight per spike. Deoxynivalenol (DON) content ranged from 0.72 to 28.0 mg kg-1 (average 10.8 mg kg-1); 3-acetyl DON (3-Ac DON) ranged from 0.1 to 3.4 mg kg-1 (average 1.2 mg kg-1); the two were closely correlated (r = 0.79, P = 0.01). Correlation coefficients between head blight rating or relative grain-weight per spike and DON or 3-Ac DON content were nonsignificant (r = 0.34-0.36). For a subset of 10 single-cross hybrids, the proportion of Fusarium-damaged kernels was closely correlated to relative grain-weight per spike (r = - 0.93, P = 0.01), but showed nonsignificant correlations to the DON and 3-Ac DON contents (r = 0.45-0.60). For the other 19 single-cross hybrids, zearalenone (ZEA) and ERG contents ranged from 0.02 to 0.15 mg kg-1 (average 0.07 mg kg-1) and 42.9 to 135.4 mg kg-1 (average 84.5 mg kg-1), respectively. ERG content was significantly correlated with relative grain-weight per spike (r = -0.52, P = 0.05), and with DON, 3-Ac DON, and ZEA contents (r = 0.57- 0.79). ERG-DON ratios varied between 3.6 and 14.4. Winter rye artificially inoculated with F. culmorum accumulated DON, 3-Ac DON in high amounts with considerable differentiation among 29 single-cross hybrids.