Occurrence and variability of mycotoxigenicFusarium species associated to wheat and maize in the South West of Spain.

The contamination of cereals with mycotoxins produced by species ofFusarium is an important risk to human and animal health. The toxigenic profile is different depending on theFusarium species considered and, in some species, differences can also be observed at intraspecific level. Information about the distribution and variability of the mycotoxigenicFusarium species allow prediction of the toxins that may occur and to devise control strategies. In this work, the occurrence of mycotoxigenicFusarium species associated to cereals was analysed in a wide sample of durum wheat fields (Triticum durum Desf.) and maize from the South West of Spain (Andalucía).F. equiseti, F. graminearum andF. culmorum were the most frequentFusarium species detected in wheat fields followed byF. sambucinum andF. avenaceum, whereas in the case of maize,F. verticillioides andF. proliferatum were the onlyFusarium species present. The relationships of the Spanish isolates from theF. equiseti, F. avenaceum andF. sambucinum species were analysed by nucleotide sequence comparison of a partial region of the Elongation Factor 1 alpha (EF-1α) with other sequences available in data bases. The results indicated thatF. avenaceum andF. equiseti showed high variability and that the SpanishF. equiseti isolates seemed to belong toF. equiseti type II.