Toxicity and moniliformin production by four recently described species of Fusarium and two uncertain taxa.

Four recently described species. Fusarium nygamai, F. dlamini, F. beomiforme and F. napiforme and two uncertain taxa, F. nygamai from millet in Africa and Fusarium species from rice with Bakanae disease, were tested for toxicity and moniliformin production. Cultures grown on autoclaved corn were fed to groups of four one-day-old ducklings for 14 days. Isolates that caused the death of 3 or 4 out of 4 ducklings were considered to be toxic and analyzed for moniliformin. All 15 isolates of F. dlamini tested were nontoxic. The other taxa contained some isolates that were toxic to ducklings and produced moniliformin in corn cultures. This is the first report of moniliformin production by F. beomiforme (200-890 micrograms/g), and F. napiforme (16-388 micrograms/g), and by F. nygamai not obtained from millet in Africa (15-874 micrograms/g). The highest production of moniliformin was obtained from the 19 isolates of F. nygamai from millet in Africa (4300-18,200 micrograms/g) and the 15 isolates from rice with Bakanae disease (2300-19,300 micrograms/g). The taxonomic position of these two uncertain taxa should be re-evaluated.