Mycotoxin production by pure fungal isolates analysed by means of an uhplc-ms/ms multi-mycotoxin method with possible pitfalls and solutions for patulin-producing isolates.

This study is the first report of applying an ultra high performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometric (UHPLC-MS/MS) multi-mycotoxin method to identify and quantify the mycotoxins produced by pure fungal isolates grown on Yeast Extract Sucrose (YES) agar. The method developed concerns a triple extraction procedure based on methanol, dichloromethane and ethyl acetate. The total extract was chromatographically separated on an UHPLC BEH C18 column and analyzed with a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. Performance characteristics (specificity, linearity, possible matrix effects, recovery, repeatability, reproducibility and limit of detection) were evaluated by spiking experiments with blank agar plugs and the analytes. Verrucarol was used as internal standard. Recovery percentages varied between 56 and 125%, whereas the limit of detection ranged from 1 to 1,500 ng g(-1) with the exception of NIV, PAT and ZEA. The method was successfully applied for examining the in vitro mycotoxin production by Aspergillus fumigatus, A. flavus and A. niger. The mobile phases used for chromatographic separation were slightly modified when studying patulin-producing molds due to signal interference between this mycotoxin and an unknown metabolite. This modified method was successfully applied for Penicillium roqueforti, P. paneum and P. carneum grown on YES agar medium. Application of the multi-mycotoxin UHPLC-MS/MS method developed may be of great importance for studying the mycotoxin capacity of fungal isolates under varying growth conditions, in order to obtain a better insight into the conditions which induce or suppress mycotoxin production by pure fungal isolates or from a chemotaxonomic point of view.