Talk:Mycotoxin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I have a question. Why are mycotoxins actually produced in the first place.... what is it that makes them so useful to the fungus that they invest their energy into producing them?

It is a very interesting question. Some mycotoxins (trichothecenes) help filamentous fumgi to infect plants. Zearalenone regulates reproduction of consuments (animals), that eat plants. Some mycotoxins act like antibiotics - against bacteria, or like fungicides - against another fungi. Mycotoxins participate in complex ecological interactions, the most part of wich is stil anclear. otrufanov@yahoo.com

[edit] Human deaths

I have added a section on the deaths in Kenya a fews years ago linked to mycotoxins in maize. There are a number of peer reviewed references to this, I picked what I felt was the most useful. Some of the information, such as the linkage to farmers harvesting early to prevent thefts from fields I got from talking to one of the pathologists (J M Wagacher) who is working on mycotoxin causing fungi in Kenya at a recent conference (The 15th International Reinhardsbrunn Symposium). His paper from that conference, when published, may have further information.

[edit] Ergot

Should ergot be mentioned as a mycotoxin? Dforest 14:20, 8 November 2005 (UTC) how does mycotoxin spoils the grains?

———

On the bottom of the article someone wrote:

"Strictly speaking, ethanol, also known as ethyl alcohol or grain alcohol, that is produced when certain species of yeast (most importantly, Saccharomyces cerevisiae) metabolize sugar in the absence of oxygen, is a mycotoxin as well."

I do not think this is correct. Not every (human-) toxic substance produced by fungi is called a mycotoxin.