Fusarium graminearum metabolites

This growth pattern of fungi and the production of secondary metabolites in solid substrate appears to be correlated with the data from fermentor studies. In the 19th century, mycologists reported that growth and metabolic activity occured primarily in a few terminal cells of a hyphae (21). In molds such as Fusarium, nuclei occur most frequently in the terminal few cells. Tfie production of the secondary metabolite zearalenone by F graminearum in a solid fermentation has been shown to occur in localized segments of the mycelia which then stops (22) and the zearalenone metabolite diffuses into the substrate. 

Zearalenone, also known as mycotoxin F2, or (3S,11E)-14,16-dihydroxy-3-methyl-3,4,5,6,9,10-hexahydro-lH-2-benzoxacyclo-tetradecine-l,7(8H)-dione (12-109), is another toxicologicaUy significant secondary metabolite of filamentous fungi of the genus Fusarium. The major producers of zearalenone are fungi F. culmorum, F. graminearum, F. cerealis, F. equiseti and F. semitectum. Zearalenone is found mostly in cereals, especially in maize, but often also in wheat, barley and oats and sometimes in... 

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