Several species in a similar environment, how can this impact volatile organic compounds’ emission and subsequent mycotoxin production?

Among the wide diversity of fungi, research has primarly focused on species that can have a direct or indirect impact on the human life. Filamentous fungi belonging to Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium genera can cause serious threats to crops in the field or during storage, including deterioration of biological material and production of mycotoxins. Mycotoxins are fungal secondary metabolites, and are thermostable small molecules (< 1000 Da). They are therefore difficult to degrade, remains in the food even after the removal of fungi, and their toxicity is effective even at low concentrations.
Another family of secondary metabolites produced by fungi are the volatile organic compounds (VOCs), emitted differentially depending on the stage of development and the biotic and abiotic factors of their environment. They participate among others in the control and communication with the species present in their environment.
Mycotoxins and VOCs have shown to share common parts of their biosynthetic pathways. In addition, several studies have shown a link between these two categories of secondary metabolites, which may allow an indirect correlation. In order to better understand the interactions taking place in the natural environment, the study of more complex fungal systems would allow an improvement of our knowledge on such interactions.
Therefore, different combinations involving Aspergillus flavus (toxigenic and non-toxigenic strains) and Fusarium verticillioides, often co-occurring in food crops, were studied, with the objective of observing VOCs profiles, the production of mycotoxins (aflatoxins and fumonisins) as well as fungal growth, in a one-to-one interaction.
VOCs were extracted using SPME fibers, separated by gas chromatography and identified by mass spectrometry. A combination of potential bioactive molecules was identified and tested for their impact on mycotoxin production and fungal growth as potential antifungals.