Effect of fungicide treatment on Fusarium culmorum and Tri genes transcription in barley malt

Abstract

Malting barley grains are essential components in the beer production. Fusarium infection can have severe effects on malt and beer, because it may inhibit the enzymatic activity in malt and may induce the occurrence of gushing and changes in the colour and flavour of the finished beer. We examined the growth of the filamentous fungi Fusarium culmorum in artificially infected and non-infected barley malting grains during the first steps of the malting process and under the effects of fungicide pretreatment (Hutton and Prosaro 250 EC) of barley plants. Our study focused on the fungi growth in two distinct barley malting cultivars Bojos and Malz. Fusarium growth was investigated by quantitative real-time PCR using TagMan MGB probes. Furthermore, we focused on the Tri5 and Tri6 genes because they play the most important roles in trichothecene biosynthesis. Surprisingly, the higher transcription activity of the Tri genes was found in the fungicide-treated cultivar Malz as compared with untreated cultivars.

Keywords

• real-time pcr
• barley malting cultivar
• fungicide pretreatment
• trichothecene biosynthesis