Impact of Fungi Co-occurrence on Mycotoxin Contamination in Maize During the Growing Season.

Maize is a possible host of many fungi, some of them able to produce different mycotoxins. Few studies exist on co-occurring fungi and resulting multi-mycotoxin contamination in field; for this reason, in field trials were conducted in two consecutive years to verify fungal incidence and mycotoxin production in the case of the co-occurrence of the three main mycotoxigenic fungi of maize in Italy: , and able to produce, respectively, aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), fumonisins (FBs), and deoxynivalenol (DON). Artificial inoculation was done after silk emergence of maize and samples were collected with a 2 week schedule up to harvest time (four samplings). Fungal interaction resulted as playing a role for both fungal incidence and mycotoxins production, as did weather conditions too. Main interactions were noted between and , and between and . In particular, as a result of fungal co-occurrence, AFB1 resulted stimulated by presence while no effects were noted in FBs and DON in case of - co-occurrence. Interestingly, the co-presence of significantly reduced both FB and DON production.