Determination of Mycotoxin Production of Fusarium Species in Genetically Modified Maize Varieties by Quantitative Flow Immunocytometry.

Levels of mycotoxins produced by species in genetically modified (GM) and near-isogenic maize, were determined using multi-analyte, microbead-based flow immunocytometry with fluorescence detection, for the parallel quantitative determination of fumonisin B1, deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, T-2, ochratoxin A, and aflatoxin B1. Maize varieties included the genetic events and , and their isogenic counterparts. Cobs were artificially infested by and conidia, and contained and natural infestation. The production of fumonisin B1 and deoxynivalenol was substantially affected in GM maize lines: , with the addition of and , produced significantly lower levels of fumonisin B1 (300 mg·kg) in than in its isogenic line (580 mg·kg), while , in addition to and , produced significantly higher levels of deoxynivalenol (18 mg·kg) in than in its isogenic line (5 mg·kg). , with and , produced lower amounts of deoxynivalenol and zearalenone than , with and . T-2 toxin production remained unchanged when considering the maize variety. The results demonstrate the utility of the Fungi-Plex™ quantitative flow immunocytometry method, applied for the high throughput parallel determination of the target mycotoxins.