Zearalenone influence

Some studies indicated that exogenous zearalenone influences plant growth and development. For example, zearalenone stimulated the initiation of the vegetative bud in tobacco pith callus tissue (Mirocha et al. 1968), inhibited the cell membrane transport of maize roots (Vianello and Macri 1981) and enhanced the a-amylase and P-glucosidase activities of germinating maize seeds. 

In spite of the fact that contamination of cereals and grains and related products with mycotoxins causes food and feed-bome intoxications in man and livestock, zearalenone in low concentrations can be treated as a plant hormone which influences the development and yield of crop plants (Biesaga-Koscielniak 2001). This review focuses on the effect of low doses of zearalenone on the stimulation of selected physiological processes in plants important for agriculture production. 

Influence of Exogenous Zearalenone on Plant Generative Development... 

Table 15.1 The influence of zearalenone on the generative development of winter wheat cv. Grana after various periods of vernalization (According to Biesaga-Koscielniak 1998, modified). Isolated wheat embryos were cultured in sterile conditions on Murashige and Skoog (1962) media supplemented with 0 (control), 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 2.00 mg/dm3 of zearalenone during 14, 28 and 42 days at 5°C (vernalization). After these periods, plants were transferred to soil and cultivated at 20/17°C. Number of headed plants, generative development of apexes and number of vegetative ones was obtained after 100 days of grown at 20/17°C...

The influence of zearalenone on the generative development of winter rape was much weaker in comparison with that of wheat. None of the concentrations which stimulated wheat plants induced the flowering of rape plants. Zearalenone treatment stimulated only the first step of the process of the shoot apices generative differentiation (Biesaga-Koscielniak 2001). 

Table 15.4 The influence of the inhibitor of zearalenone (malathion) on the generative development of winter wheat plants. Seeds of wheat cv. Grana were cultured at sterile condition on Murashige and Skoog (1962) media supplemented with 0 (control), melathion (10 ml/dm3) and zearalenone (2 mg/dm3) during 5 weeks at 5°C (optimal time of vernalization). After vernalization plants were replaced to soil and grown at 20/17°C. Percentage of headed plants and the length of phase from vernalization to flowering was determined for 100 plants in each kind of medium...

The effect of zearalenone on crop development may be connected to its influence on the status and functioning of the photosynthetic apparatus (Koscielniak et al. 2008). The after-effects of zearalenone on the growth of soybean and wheat plants, net photosynthesis and transpiration rates, stomatal conductance, photochemical efficiency of photosystem 2 and on final seeds yield were determined. Modifications in leaf area were more pronounced in soybean than in wheat, and this tendency increases in successive developmental phases. The net photosynthesis was stimulated during the juvenile phase and during that of the final one by about 13.6% (average) in soybean plants. Stimulation of transpiration was also observed after... 

Boeira, L., Bryce, J., Stewart, G., Flannigan, B. (2002). Influence of cultural conditions on sensitivity of brewing yeasts growth to Fusarium mycotoxins zearalenone, deoxynivalenol and fumonisin Bl. International Biodeterioration and Biodegradation, 50, 69-81. 

Smith, T.K. (1982). Dietary influences on excretory pathways and tissue residues of zearalenone and zearalenols in the rat. 

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