%0 Journal Article
%T Simultaneous detection of Fusarium culmorum and F. graminearum in plant material by duplex PCR with melting curve analysis
%A Christoph Brandfass
%A Petr Karlovsky
%J BMC Microbiology
%D 2006
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2180-6-4
%X We describe a duplex-PCR-based method for the simultaneous detection of F. culmorum and F. graminearum in plant material. Species-specific PCR products are identified by melting curve analysis performed in a real-time thermocycler in the presence of the fluorescent dye SYBR Green I. In contrast to multiplex real-time PCR assays, the method does not use doubly labeled hybridization probes.PCR with product differentiation by melting curve analysis offers a cost-effective means of qualitative analysis for the presence of F. culmorum and F. graminearum in plant material. This method is particularly suitable for epidemiological studies involving a large number of samples.Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a disease of cereal crops, which has a severe impact on wheat and barley production worldwide. The infection of heads of small grain cereals and maize plants with Fusarium spp. impairs grain yield and quality [1]. Apart from adversely effecting grain size, weight, protein content, baking quality of the flour, and other technological parameters, the contamination of grain and cereal products with Fusarium mycotoxins is the most serious consequence of FHB [2,3]. The consumption of commodities contaminated with mycotoxins poses a health risk to both humans and farm animals, making fungal contamination a key concern in food and feed safety assessments. Because grains of low quality are used in feedstuff production rather than in human foods, health and productivity impairment in farm animals caused by mycotoxin contamination of feeds have regularly been reported in the last decades from Europe [4]. Our understanding of the effects of low doses of Fusarium mycotoxins consumed over prolonged time periods (possibly the whole life span) on humans is poor because of technical difficulties in addressing these issues by doing epidemiological studies. While the EU is still in the process of developing legal limits for Fusarium mycotoxins in grains, food and feeds, some European countrie
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2180/6/4