Unveiling the Fusarium graminearum species complex: a systematic review and análisis of global survey data on species and toxigenic profile

DEL PONTE E.; MOREIRA G.; PEREIRA C.; TESSMANN D.; WARD T.; O´DONNELL K.; WALLWIJK C.; VAN DER LEE T.; ZHANG H.; CHULSE S.; STENGLEIN S.; PAN D.; VERO S.; MORETTI A.; LOGRIECO A.

Conferencia; 2nd Mycokey International Conference; 2018

Fusarium graminearum is ranked among the ten most dangerous fungal pathogens that affect agro-ecosystems. The ascomycete fungus survives on plant residues and causes floral diseases in small grains including wheat, barley and oats, as well as summer crops such as maize and rice. Infected kernels are light-weight and may be contaminated with mycotoxins of concern to human and animal health, mainly trichothecenes and zearalenone. During the last 20 years, the increasing availability of F. graminearum strains collected all over the world, from different hosts/substrates, together with advances in taxonomy based on genealogical concordance, led to the recognition of 16 species, as part of the Fusarium graminearum species complex (FGSC) (e.g. O'Donnell et al. 2004). Surveys of FGSC strains have been conducted and reported worldwide for different crops/substrates, with strains being accurately identified to species using DNA-based methods. In addition, the potential to produce mycotoxins, mainly B-trichothecenes, is usually determined using either chemical methods or, more commonly, time and cost-effective PCR-based assays that target portions of genes of the trichothecene biosynthetic (TRI) cluster. In this work we conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed studies since the seminal 2004 study. We searched online databases and scrutinized articles. Studies that reported lineages/species within FGSC were included in the analysis. Two main datatables were created. The first, contained data at the article level including bibliographic, scientometric, geographic, methodological (ID methods), surveyed hosts and FGSC members. A second datatable contained information at the strain level such as article, code(s), host/substrate of origin, year, geographical coordinates, species and trichothecene genotype. In this talk, the analysis of the data obtained from 77 peer-reviewed articles published by 323 authors in 27 journals that matched the criteria (as of August 2018) will be presented. A summary of the data at the strain level for a total of 14,553 catalogued individuals will be presented as part of a website, the global FGSC database. The interactive dashboard (accessible at: https://github.com/emdelponte/FGSC) allows to search, summarize and map strains according to several criteria including article, country, host, species and trichothecene genotype.