Co-Occurrence of Beauvericin and Fumonisin Producing Ability of Fusarium Strains Isolated from Crop Plants in Hungary

Beauvericin (BEA) is an emerging mycotoxin with wide-ranging bioactivity (antimicrobial and insecticide), making it a potential target for drug and pesticide development. BEA primarily produced by Beauveria, Isaria, and Fusarium species. The BEA-producing abilities of a collection of 100 Fusarium strains isolated from maize were tested using a gene-specific primer (Beas_1, Beas_2) by PCR. Among all, 23 were found to have the beauvericin synthetase (BEAS) gene sequence, which is responsible for the production of BEA. Fusarium proliferatum (6) and F. verticillioides (14) strains were producing the highest BEA concentrations. The toxin-producing ability of the strains was investigated in small bioreactors. Parallel with BEA, the most frequent Fusarium toxins such as deoxynivalenol (DON), T2, HT-2, zearalenone (ZEA), fumonisin B1 (FB1), and fumonisin B2 (FB2) were also measured. Only FB1 and FB2 were observed above the detection limit, the coexistence of the FBs and BEA was measured in high concentration. In all BEA-producing strains, the FBs production could be detected. The highest BEA concentration was 3131 mg/kg, and the highest FB1 and FB2 concentrations were 4393 mg/kg and 1390 mg/kg, respectively. In the present study, the gene sequences responsible for the production of BEA in F. verticilloides isolates have not only been detected but also demonstrated with UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS to be capable of biosynthesis. From the phylogenic analysis of the BEAS gene sequences, the assumption could be made that the ability to produce BEA was conferred via horizontal gene transfer.