Giusy Mule

• Research Lead at Italian National Research Council

Metschnikowia pulcherrima includes strains of applied agro-food interest, particularly due to the antimicrobial activity against plant pathogens, contribution to the aroma of fermented beverages, and preliminary evidence related to probiotic activity. This biotechnological relevance sheds new light of interest on the biology of this yeast. To bette...

Fumonisin B1 (FB1) is the most harmful toxin, due to its incidence and high concentrations in maize, along with its toxicity to humans and animals. To investigate possible mechanisms of FB1 phytotoxicity, an RNA-Sequencing based transcriptome analysis was carried out at 3 h after FB1 treatment in the shoots of the CO433 maize line resistant to Fusa...

Wild rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia (L.) DC cv. Dallas) is a leafy green vegetable appreciated for its pungent taste and healthy properties, often consumed as a ready-to-eat product. The cultivation system is crucial in determining the overall quality, while postharvest storage is fundamental for preserving nutritional quality, phytochemicals, and v...

It has been widely assessed that the quality and quantity of nutrient supply and the growing system can strongly affect the growth and development of plants, the nutritional quality, and the levels of minerals, phytochemicals, and vitamins. The study was conducted on leaves of wild rockets grown in soil and soilless to examine the effect of growing...

Aflatoxins (AFs) are toxic secondary metabolites produced by Aspergillus spp. and are found in food and feed as contaminants worldwide. Due to climate change, AFs occurrence is expected to increase also in western Europe. Therefore, to ensure food and feed safety, it is mandatory to develop green technologies for AFs reduction in contaminated matri...

A metabolic feature of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) is the production of exopolysaccharides (EPSs), which have technological and functional properties of interest to the food sector. The present study focused on the characterization of the Weissella cibaria strain C43-11, a high EPS producer in the presence of sucrose, in comparison with a low-produc...

We report the identification and characterisation of a mosaic, multidrug-resistant and mobilisable IncR plasmid (pST1023) detected in Salmonella ST1023, a monophasic variant 4,[5],12:i: strain of widespread pandemic lineage, reported as a Southern European clone. pST1023 contains exogenous DNA regions, principally gained from pSLT-derivatives and I...

Enzymatic catalysis is one of the main pillars of sustainability for industrial production. Enzyme application allows minimization of the use of toxic solvents and to valorize the agro-industrial residues through reuse. In addition, they are safe and energy efficient. Nonetheless, their use in biotechnological processes is still hindered by the cos...

In ruminants, the gastrointestinal tract is colonized by highly concentrated and variable populations of microorganisms, particularly bacteria, archaea, fungi, ciliated protozoa and viruses. Age, diet and management influence bacterial community both for proportions and for diversity. At the first stages after lambing, lambs are functional monogast...

Red orange and lemon extract (RLE) is an anthocyanins-rich dietary supplement that may influence gastrointestinal bacterial community in ruminants. The aim of the present study was to investigate the RLE effects on gut microbiota composition in lambs. Twenty-eight lambs were randomly divided into a control group (CON; n = 14) and an anthocyanin gro...

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) decisively influence the technological, nutritional, organoleptic and preservation properties of bakery products. Therefore, their use has long been considered an excellent strategy to improve the characteristics of those goods. The aim of this study was the evaluation of microbial diversity in different doughs used for t...

Anaerobic digestion represents an interesting approach to produce biogas from organic waste materials contaminated by mycotoxins. In this study a shotgun metagenomic analysis of lab-scale bioreactors fed with mycotoxin-contaminated silage has been carried out to characterize the evolution of microbial community under the operating conditions and th...

Plant antioxidants are important compounds involved in plant defense, signaling, growth, and development. The quantity and quality of such compounds is genetically driven; nonetheless, light is one of the factors that strongly influence their synthesis and accumulation in plant tissues. Indeed, light quality affects the fitness of the plant, modula...

Scientific communication is facilitated by a data-driven, scientifically sound taxonomy that considers the end-user's needs and established successful practice. Previously (Geiser et al. 2013; Phytopathology 103:400-408. 2013), the Fusarium community voiced near unanimous support for a concept of Fusarium that represented a clade comprising all agr...

In this study we describe the genetic elements and the antimicrobial resistance units (RUs) harboured by the Salmonella Typhimurium monophasic variant 1,4,[5],12:i:- strain ST1030. Of the three identified RUs two were chromosomal, RU1 (IS26-blaTEM-1-IS26-strAB-sul2- IS26) and RU2 (IS26-tetR(B)-tetA(B)-ΔIS26), and one, RU3 (a sul3-associated class 1...

Dehydroascorbate reductases (DHARs) are important enzymes that reconvert the dehydroascorbic acid (DHA) into ascorbic acid (ASC). They are involved in the plant response to oxidative stress, such as that induced by the mycotoxin beauvericin (BEA). Tomato plants were treated with 50 µM of BEA; the main antioxidant compounds and enzymes were evaluate...

Aflatoxins (AFs) are secondary metabolites produced by Aspergillus spp., known for their hepatotoxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic activity in humans and animals. AF contamination of staple food commodities is a global concern due to their toxicity and the economic losses they cause. Different strategies have been applied to reduce fungal contaminat...

Grafting of commercial tomato varieties and hybrids on the tomato ecotype Manduria resulted in high levels of tolerance to the infection of Sw5 resistance-breaking strains of tomato spotted wilt virus and of severe cucumber mosaic virus strains supporting hypervirulent satellite RNAs that co-determine stunting and necrotic phenotypes in tomato. To...

In some environments, a number of crops, notably maize and nuts can be contaminated by aflatoxin B1 and related compounds resulting from the growth of aflatoxin-producing Aspergilli. Fungal peroxidases have been shown to degrade a number of mycotoxins, including aflatoxin B1 (AFB1). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the in vit...

Fusarium proliferatum causes diverse diseases of many economically important plants. The fungus produces several mycotoxins of which the fumonisins are the most toxic. Currently, deletion of key genes for mycotoxin biosynthesis is a laborious and time-consuming procedure. We developed a novel CRISPR/Cas9-based genome-editing tool for the direct del...

In this work a laccase mediator system (LMS) composed of LC and chlorogenic acid (CGA) was applied to the production of the Italian “Giuncata” cheese to evaluate its effect on the physicochemical characteristics, yield, texture, the colorimetric and sensory properties. Crosslinked proteins were detected and identified by SDS-PAGE and LC MS/MS analy...

Broccoli (Brassica oleracea L. var. italica) is largely cultivated in southern Italy. It is an important source of phytonutrients, which are partially lost during postharvest storage. The aim of this work was to evaluate the overall effect of five different low-intensity light-emitting diodes (LEDs) on the quality parameters of broccoli florets ove...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the in vivo effect of a commercially available herbal preparation (Oxyphenol®, I-Green, Padua, Italy) from Pinus taeda hydrolysed lignin (PTHL) on fattening beef rumen microbiota. Forty Limousine steers were randomly divided into two groups of twenty individuals each, reared in two separated pens. The two group...

Arcobacter (A.) butzleri is an emerging pathogenic microorganism, whose taxonomy has been recently suggested to be emended to the Aliarcobacter (Al.) butzleri comb. nov. Despite extensive taxonomic analysis, only few fragmented studies have investigated the occurrence and the prevalence of virulence and antibiotic resistance determinants of this sp...

MycoKey, an EU-funded Horizon 2020 project, includes a series of “Roundtable Discussions” to gather information on trending research areas in the field of mycotoxicology. This paper includes summaries of the Roundtable Discussions on Chemical Detection and Monitoring of mycotoxins and on the role of genetics and biodiversity in mycotoxin production...

Mycotoxin contamination of staple food commodities is a relevant health and economic issue worldwide. The development of green and effective reduction strategies to counteract the contamination by multiple mycotoxins has become an urgent need. The aim of this work was to evaluate the capability of a laccase (LC) from Pleurotus eryngii and a laccase...

Advanced age is characterized by several changes, one of which being the impairment of the homeostasis of intestinal microbiota. These alterations critically influence host health and have been associated with morbidity and mortality in older adults. “Inflamm-aging”, an age-related chronic inflammatory process, is a common trait of several conditio...

Milk protein crosslink through the action of enzymes represents a feasible strategy to impart new functionalities to cheese. In this work we reported the effects of a laccase mediator system (LMS) on protein crosslink and antioxidant property of curd. The crosslinking activity of a purified recombinant laccase Ery4 and a commercial enzyme preparati...

Pseudomonas fluorescens is a genetically and phenotypically heterogeneous species that is often reported as a spoiler of fresh foods, but it has recently been implicated in clinical infection. In this study, we sequenced the genome of P. fluorescens strain ITEM 17298, isolated from mozzarella cheese and able to cause several alterations under cold...

The healthy consumers make a strong pressure to natural products that can prevent the chronic diseases and improve the general health status, and therefore an important aspect that have to be considered is the safe level of the nutraceuticals. This study reports the occurrence of Ochratoxin A (OTA) and associated fungal contamination in 35 samples...

Worldwide mycotoxins contamination has a significant impact on animal and human health, and leads to economic losses accounted for billions of dollars annually. Since the application of pre- and post- harvest strategies, including chemical or physical removal, are not sufficiently effective, biological transformation is considered the most promisin...

Background The fungal genus Aspergillus is of critical importance to humankind. Species include those with industrial applications, important pathogens of humans, animals and crops, a source of potent carcinogenic contaminants of food, and an important genetic model. The genome sequences of eight aspergilli have already been explored to investigate...

Members of the fungal genus Fusarium can produce numerous secondary metabolites, including the nonribosomal mycotoxins beauvericin (BEA) and enniatins (ENNs). Both mycotoxins are synthesized by the multifunctional enzyme enniatin synthetase (ESYN1) that contains both peptide synthetase and S-adenosyl-l-methionine-dependent N-methyltransferase activ...

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a nephrotoxic and potentially carcinogenic mycotoxin produced by several species of Aspergillus and Penicillium, contaminating grapes, wine and a variety of food products. We recently isolated from OTA contaminated soil vineyard a novel free-living strain of Acinetobacter sp. neg1, ITEM 17016, able to degrade OTA into the non-...

Ophiobolin A (O-A) is a sesterpenoid with numerous biological activities, including potential anticancer effects. Its production at an industrial level is hampered due to inability of fungus Bipolaris maydis to biosynthesise it in vitro in large amount. Among the environmental factors regulating fungal metabolism, light plays a crucial role. In thi...

Laccases (LCs) are multicopper oxidases that find application as versatile biocatalysts for the green bioremediation of environmental pollutants and xenobiotics. In this study we elucidate the degrading activity of Lac2 pure enzyme form Pleurotus pulmonarius towards aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and M1 (AFM1). LC enzyme was purified using three chromatograph...

Currently, there is very little information available regarding the microbiome associated with the wine production chain. Here, we used an amplicon sequencing approach based on high-throughput sequencing (HTS) to obtain a comprehensive assessment of the bacterial community associated with the production of three Apulian red wines, from grape to fin...

Analysis of sequencing data using BioMaS. Data related to each bioinformatics analysis step are provided for the analysed samples. In particular, (i) Sample Name = label assigned to the analysed sample, (ii) Grape Variety; (iii) Time Point: step in the wine fermentation process; (iv) Biological Replicate: Samples were collected twice, and the two b...

Taxonomic assignments determined by BioMaS. Data related to the obtained taxonomic classification. In particular, (i) Sample Name = label assigned to the analysed sample, (ii) Classified = number of classified paired-end (PE) reads, (iii) Kingdom: PE reads classified at the kingdom level, (iv) % Kingdom: percentage of PE reads assigned at the kingd...

Winery microflora associated with the tested wine varieties. List of taxa at the genus and species levels identified in the Cabernet, Negramaro, and Primitivo samples that were not detected in the field (the bww samples) but were present during fermentation from start (sAF) to finish (eMLF). (DOCX)

Microflora associated with the tested wine varieties that originated in the field and persisted throughout fermentation. List of the species that originated in the field and persisted throughout the fermentation process, from start (sAF) to finish (eMLF). (DOCX)

Pairwise comparisons between time points and grape varieties. Two-tailed t-tests were used to compare the H-indices obtained for each sample. In particular, pairwise comparisons were made between each pair of time points for a given variety (a) and between pairs of varieties at a given time point (b). Statistically significant differences are indic...

The Pleurotus eryngii species complex is an economically important group which includes several closely related varieties, whose genetic discrimination is still not clear. One hundred and ten Italian strains of Pleurotus eryngii belonging to the varieties elaeoselini, eryngii, ferulae and thapsiae and P. nebrodensis were analysed by sequencing two...

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a mycotoxin with a main nephrotoxic activity contaminating several foodstuffs. In the present report, five soil samples collected from OTA-contaminated vineyards were screened to isolate microorganisms able to biodegrade OTA. When cultivated in OTA-supplemented medium, OTA was converted in OTα by 225 bacterial isolates. To rev...

Comparisons of draft genome sequences of three geographically distinct isolates of Fusarium fujikuroi with two recently published genome sequences from the same species suggest diverse profiles of secondary metabolite production within F. fujikuroi. Species- and lineage-specific genes, many of which appear to exhibit expression profiles that are co...

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by toxigenic fungi contaminating foods and feeds in pre-, post-harvest and processing, and represent a great concern worldwide, both for the economic implications and for the health of the consumers. Many environmental conditions are involved in the regulation of mycotoxin biosynthesis. Among these, lig...

Fusarium genus is able to produce several metabolites including the emerging mycotoxins beauvericin (BEA) and enniatins (ENs). Due to their ionophoric property, BEA and ENs exert many biological properties, including antimicrobial, insecticidal, and cytotoxic activity in human cell lines, so that they are recently proposed as novel anticancer drugs...

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a nephrotoxic and potentially carcinogenic mycotoxin produced by several species of Aspergillus and Penicillium. It is one of the major mycotoxins contaminating grain, grapes and a variety of food products and the development of methods for reducing pre- and post-harvest contamination has drawn considerable attention. In the c...

DNA phylogenetic comparisons have shown that morphology-based species recognition often underestimates fungal diversity. Therefore, the need for accurate DNA sequence data, tied to both correct taxonomic names and clearly annotated specimen data, has never been greater. Furthermore, the growing number of molecular ecology and microbiome projects us...

During their life cycle, plants can undergo simultaneous attack by different pathogens that produce various toxins. It is well known that in some plant-fungal interactions, mycotoxins play an important role in pathogenesis and induce a reactive oxygen species increase. Plants counteract the overaccumulation of reactive oxygen species by reinforcing...

In this work the authors analyzed sixty italian strains of the edible mushroom "cardoncello" (Pleurotus eryngii) belonging to the varieties eryngii and ferulae by sequencing two housekeeping genes (ef1-a and rpb2) and evaluating the activity of peroxidase, superoxide dismutase and catalase, in order to find some molecular markers for the traceabili...

Fumonisins (FBs), carcinogenic mycotoxins, are known to be typically produced by several phytopathogenic fungal species belonging to the genus Fusarium. F. proliferatum and F. verticillioides, two important pathogens of maize worldwide, are the most common species that produce fumonisins (FBs). The main FBs produced by these species are FB1, FB2 an...

Powdery mildew (PM), caused by the fungus Erysiphe necator, is one of the most widespread fungal disease of grape and may cause extensive openings on the berry surface during the infection. We evaluated the effect of damage caused by PM in grape berries on the growth of and mycotoxin production by Aspergillus and on the oxidative stress in infected...

the aim of this study was to analyze the transcriptional regulation of enniatins (ENs) production in Fusarium avenaceum. we develop a new method to quantify ENs in FDM agar medium. We performed an LC/MS/MS analysis to evaluate enniatin A, A1, B, B1 and B4 production by seven Fusarium avenaceum strains and, in a time course experiment, by ITEM 3404...

Fungal biodiversity is one of the most important contributors to the occurrence and severity of mycotoxin contamination of crop plants. Phenotypic and metabolic plasticity has enabled mycotoxigenic fungi to colonize a broad range of agriculturally important crops and to adapt to a range of environmental conditions. New mycotoxin-commodity combinati...

Dried vine fruits may be heavily colonized by Aspergillus species. The molecular biodiversity of an Aspergillus population (234 strains) isolated from dried vine fruit samples of worldwide origin were analyzed by investigating four housekeeping gene loci (calmodulin, β-tubulin, elongation factor 1-α, RPB2). Aspergillus Sect. Nigri was dominant and...

Gibberella fujikuroi is composed of at least nine mating populations (MPs), corresponding to biological species and assigned letters (from A to I). Each MP possesses a specific toxicological profile and a preferential host. Members of Fusarium verticillioides and F. thapsinum, anamorphs respectively of MPs A (G. moniliformis) and F (G. thapsina), s...

The fungus Fusarium verticillioides is a pathogen of maize and can produce the mycotoxins fumonisins. The present work examined the effect of abiotic factors on the expression of two fumonisin biosynthetic genes (FUM2 and FUM21) and fumonisin production in the fungus. Specifically, the effects of water activity (0.901-0.990), temperature (20-30 °C)...

The human health benefits of fruits and vegetables are ascribed to their phytochemical content, such as carotenoids and polyphenolics. In the search for antioxidative chemicals from native fruits of the Puglia region of Italy, Prunus cerasus L., an acidic cherry widely used for culinary purposes, and Prunus mahaleb L., a tree species commonly used...

Fusarium verticillioides is the main source of fumonisins, a group of mycotoxins that can contaminate maize-based food and feed and cause diseases in humans and animals. The study of the effect of different environmental conditions on toxin production should provide information that can be used to develop strategies to minimize the risk. This study...

Ochratoxin A (OTA), a mycotoxin produced by Aspergillus and Penicillium species, is composed of a dihydroisocoumarin ring linked to phenylalanine, and its biosynthetic pathway has not yet been completely elucidated. Most of the knowledge regarding the genetic and enzymatic aspects of OTA biosynthesis has been elucidated in Penicillium species. In A...

Aspergillus niger is a fungus able to produce the carcinogenic mycotoxins ochratoxin A (OTA) and fumonisins. We analysed the influence of light of various wavelengths on growth, conidiation, fumonisin B2 (FB2) and OTA biosynthesis by A. niger ITEM 7097. Light from both sides of the spectrum, from long (627 nm) to short wavelengths (470-455 nm), had...

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