Everything about Fusarium totally explained
Fusarium is a large genus of
filamentous fungi widely distributed in soil and in association with plants. Most species are harmless
saprobes and are relatively abundant members of the soil microbial community. Some species produce
mycotoxins in cereal crops that can affect human and animal health if they enter the food chain. The main toxins produced by these
Fusarium species are
fumonisins and
trichothecenes.
Pathogen
The genus includes a number of economically important plant
pathogenic species.
Fusarium graminearum commonly infects barley if there's rain late in the season. It is of economic impact to the malting and brewing industries as well as feed barley. Fusarium contamination in barley can result in head blight and in extreme contaminations the barley can appear pink. The genome of this wheat and maize pathogen has been sequenced.
Fusarium graminearum can also cause root rot and seedling blight. The total losses in the US of barley and wheat crops between 1991 and 1996 have been estimated at $3 billion. In humans whose immune systems are weakened in a particular way (
neutropenia, for example, very low count of the white blood cell type called
neutrophils), aggressive fusarial infections penetrating the entire body and bloodstream (disseminated infections) may be caused by members of the
Fusarium solani complex,
Fusarium oxysporum,
Fusarium verticillioides,
Fusarium proliferatum and rarely other fusarial species. The neutropenia in such cases is almost always the result of
chemotherapy against certain kinds of
leukemia or else heavy use of immunosuppressive drugs in problematic cases of major
organ transplant surgery.
Fusarium fungus has been detected in food from smallscale producers in South Africa, where HIV infected people find it difficult to fight off the fungal attack with their immune system so badly compromised. Researchers from the Morogo Research Programme at South Africa's North-West University found nine types of toxic Fusarium fungi in food produced by smallscale producers. The fungi, found in maize and green vegetables in home gardens, can cause organ failure in HIV and immune-suppressed patients, according to research in the
South African Journal of Science.
Use as human food
Fusarium venenatum is produced industrially for use as a human food by Marlow Foods, Ltd., and is marketed under the name
Quorn in Europe and North America.
Biological warfare
Mass casualties occurred in the
Soviet Union in the 1930s and 1940s when
Fusarium-contaminated wheat flour was baked into bread, causing
alimentary toxic aleukia with a 60% mortality rate. Symptoms began with
abdominal pain,
diarrhea,
vomiting, and
prostration. Within days
fever,
chills,
myalgias and
bone marrow depression with
granulocytopenia and secondary
sepsis. Further symptoms included
pharyngeal or
laryngeal ulceration and diffuse bleeding into the skin (
petechiae and
ecchymoses),
melena, bloody diarrhea,
hematuria,
hematemesis,
epistaxis,
vaginal bleeding,
Pancytopenia and
gastrointestinal ulceration.
Fusarium sporotrichoides contamination was found in affected grain in 1932, spurring research for medical purposes and for use in
biological warfare. The active ingredient was found to be
trichothecene T-2 mycotoxin, and was produced in quantity and weaponized prior to the passage of the
Biological Weapons Convention in 1972. The Soviets were accused of using the agent, dubbed
"yellow rain", to cause 6,300 deaths in
Laos,
Kampuchea, and
Afghanistan between 1975 and 1981. The supposed biological warfare agent was later shown to be bee
feces.
Following an outbreak of
Fusarium oxysporum that affected
coca plantations in
Peru, and other crops planted in the area, the
United States has proposed the use of the agent as a
mycoherbicide in drug eradication. In 2000, a proposal was passed to use the agent as part of
Plan Colombia. In response to concerns that use of the fungus could be perceived as
biological warfare, the
Clinton Administration "waived" this use of
Fusarium. A subsequent law passed in 2006 has mandated the testing of
mycoherbicide agents - either
Fusarium oxysporum or
Pleospora papaveracea - in field trials in U.S. territory. Use of
Fusarium oxysporum for these tests has raised concerns because resistant
coca from the previous outbreak has been widely cultivated, and the fungus has been implicated in the birth of 31
anencephalic children in the
Rio Grande region of
Texas in 1991, the loss of
palm trees in
Los Angeles, and eye infections from
contact lens solutions. The alternative
Pleospora papaveracea is less well-known; despite decades of study in the
Soviet biowarfare lab in
Tashkent,
Uzbekistan, the relevant mycotoxins reportedly have not yet been isolated, named, or studied.
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