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April 2011 - present
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Publications (137)
This review summarises developments published in the period from mid-2021 to mid-2022 on the analysis of a variety of matrices for mycotoxins. Important developments in all aspects of mycotoxin analysis, from sampling and quality assurance/quality control of analytical results, to the various detection and quantitation technologies ranging from sin...
Background
The NORMAN Association (https://www.norman-network.com/) initiated the NORMAN Suspect List Exchange (NORMAN-SLE; https://www.norman-network.com/nds/SLE/) in 2015, following the NORMAN collaborative trial on non-target screening of environmental water samples by mass spectrometry. Since then, this exchange of information on chemicals that...
Aflatoxin B1 is a potent human carcinogen produced by several species of Aspergillus mainly found on nuts and maize. Exposures in parts of Africa, Latin America and Asia can be at multiples, sometimes orders of magnitude above tolerable daily levels. Although human exposure to aflatoxin can be estimated by analysis of the diet, only determination o...
Fumonisin mycotoxins are a family of secondary metabolites produced by Fusarium verticillioides and related species, as well as some strains of Aspergillus niger. Fumonisin contamination of maize is a concern when grown under hot, dry conditions. When present above regulatory levels, there can be effects on animal health. New tools to reduce the to...
This perspective examines four of the primary challenges that the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) presents to farmers, producers, and consumers. DON is one of the big five agriculturally important mycotoxins, resulting from Fusarium infection on grains, such as maize, barley, and wheat. In many countries, such as Canada, DON is the mycotoxin of prin...
Background: The NORMAN Association (https://www.norman-network.com/) initiated the NORMAN Suspect List Exchange (NORMAN-SLE; https://www.norman-network.com/nds/SLE/) in 2015, following the NORMAN collaborative trial on non-target screening of environmental water samples by mass spectrometry. Since then, this exchange of information on chemicals tha...
Silage has become a key component of year-long animal feed in Canada and parts of northern Europe. It provides several advantages to farmers over traditional feed components, such as increased digestibility, higher nutrient content and preservation of the forages to meet seasonal feeding demands. Some ensiled materials can contain toxic fungal meta...
Ilyonectria mors-panacis, previously Cylindrocarpon destructans, is the main plant pathogen responsible for the fungal disease ginseng root rot. This economically important disease, also called disappearing root rot, reduces crop yields by an average of 30% at harvest. While the disease is well studied from ecological and genomic perspectives, the...
Ilyonectria root rot of ginseng can greatly decrease crop yields often by 20-30% at time of harvest. We previously determined that the Ilyonectria siderophore N,N′,N″-triacetylfusarinine C (TAFC) is critical for the ginseng pathogens' virulence. TAFC enables the fungus to acquire iron from its environment, and once inside the cell, iron is typicall...
This review summarises developments published in the period from mid-2020 to mid-2021 on the analysis of a number of diverse matrices for mycotoxins. Notable developments in all aspects of mycotoxin analysis, from sampling and quality assurance/quality control of analytical results, to the various detection and quantitation technologies ranging fro...
Aflatoxins B1 (AFB1) and G1 (AFG1) are carcinogenic mycotoxins that contaminate crops such as maize and groundnuts worldwide. The broadly accepted method to assess chronic human aflatoxin exposure is by quantifying the amount of aflatoxin adducted to human serum albumin. This has been reported using ELISA, HPLC, or LC-MS/MS to measure the amount of...
Vaginal malodour is a sign of dysbiosis. The biogenic amines (BAs) cadaverine, putrescine and tyramine are known to be causative compounds. Recent reports suggest these compounds produced by pathogens might have a role beyond causing malodour; namely inhibiting the growth of lactobacilli bacteria that are crucial in the maintenance of vaginal homeo...
Nontarget data acquisition for target analysis (nDATA) workflows using liquid chromatography-high-resolution accurate mass (LC-HRAM) spectrometry, spectral screening software, and a compound database have generated interest because of their potential for screening of pesticides in foods. However, these procedures and particularly the instrument pro...
Non-targeted analysis (NTA) workflows using mass spectrometry are gaining popularity in many disciplines, but universally accepted reporting standards are nonexistent. Current guidance addresses limited elements of NTA reporting-most notably, identification confidence-and is insufficient to ensure scientific transparency and reproducibility given t...
Understanding the environmental fate, transport, and occurrence of pesticides and pharmaceuticals in aquatic environments is of utmost concern to regulators. Traditionally, monitoring of environmental contaminants has consisted of LC‐MS/MS analyses for a set of targeted compounds in discrete surface water samples. These targeted approaches are limi...
Lactobacillus crispatus is the dominant species in the vagina of many women. With the potential for strains of this species to be used as a probiotic to help prevent and treat dysbiosis, we investigated isolates from vaginal swabs with Lactobacillus-dominated and a dysbiotic microbiota. A comparative genome analysis led to the identification of met...
The plant parasitic fungus Claviceps purpurea sensu lato produces sclerotia containing toxic ergot alkaloids and uncharacterized indole diterpenoids in grasses including cereals. The aim of this study was to detect as many peptide ergot alkaloids and indole diterpenoids in ergot sclerotia as possible by using a liquid chromatography–high-resolution...
Fumonisins are mycotoxins produced by a number of species of Fusarium and Aspergillus. They are polyketides that possess a linear polyol structure with two tricarballylic acid side chains and an amine moiety. Toxicity results from their inhibition of Ceramide Synthase (CerS), which perturbs sphingolipid concentrations. The tricarballylic side chain...
This review summarises developments on the analysis of various matrices for mycotoxins published in the period from mid-2019 to mid-2020. Notable developments in all aspects of mycotoxin analysis, from sampling and quality assurance/quality control of analytical results, to the various detection and quantitation technologies ranging from single myc...
A major challenge for LC-MS analysis is the ability to compare data between laboratories and across instrument platforms. Currently, mycotoxin determination relies on dereplication strategies based on physicochemical properties such as the m/z of the precursor and product ions. Unlike these intrinsic properties, retention time (tR) is an extrinsic...
Cyanobacteria are ubiquitous photosynthetic prokaryotes that produce structurally diverse bioactive metabolites. While microcystins are extensively studied, other cyanopeptides produced by common bloom forming species have received little attention. Cyanopeptolins are a large cyanopeptide group that contain a diagnostic 3‐amino‐6‐hydroxy‐2‐piperido...
Fumonisin contamination of maize damaged by Fusarium verticillioides and related species is a major problem when it is grown under warm and dry conditions. Consumption of fumonisin contaminated food and feed is harmful to both humans and livestock. Novel tools for reducing or eliminating fumonisin toxicity may be useful to the agri-feed sector to d...
Of the five agriculturally important mycotoxins, AFB 1 , FB 1 , DON, ZEA and OTA, a well-characterized biomarker of exposure in blood is only available for aflatoxin. Working with a population of 139 women of childbearing age in Rwanda, we undertook a comprehensive assessment of their dietary mycotoxin exposure. Using high-resolution LC-MS/MS with...
The presence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in biosolids applied to farmland is of concern due to their potential accumulation in the environment and the subsequent effects on humans. Thermo-alkaline hydrolysis (TAH) is a method used for greater stabilization of biosolids after anaerobic digestion. In this work, the effect of...
In this study, the fate of several micropollutants (MPs) in wastewater due to coagulation using both fresh and recovered aluminum and iron coagulants was determined. 18 MPs from different groups such as antibiotics, food additives, and surfactants were selected and spiked into the primary influent collected from a local wastewater plant. The distri...
Many women suffer from urinary tract infections (UTIs). In addition to pain and increased urgency to urinate, malodour is a significant issue for these patients. The specific factors causing this malodour are unclear, and there are no targeted treatment options to counteract it effectively. We used a metabolomics approach to compare the chemical co...
Alternaria spp. occur as plant pathogens worldwide under field and storage conditions. They lead to food spoilage and also produce several classes of secondary metabolites that contaminate the food production chain. From a food safety perspective, the major challenge of assessing the risk of Alternaria contamination is the lack of a clear consensus...
Penicillium species were commonly isolated during a fungal survey of bat hibernacula in New Brunswick and Quebec, Canada. Strains were isolated from arthropods, bats, rodents (i.e. the deer mouse Peromyscus maniculatus), their dung, and cave walls. Hundreds of fungal strains were recovered, of which Penicillium represented a major component of the...
Ontario has suffered widespread epidemics of Fusarium Head Blight or Gibberella Ear Rot roughly every five years since the late 1970s. We undertook a study of the chemotype and genotype of Fusarium graminearum isolated from 1,800 samples of wheat and maize collected across the cereal growing areas over three years. 468 isolates obtained were genoty...
Fungal endophytes are sources of novel bioactive compounds but relatively few agriculturally important fruiting plants harboring endophytes have been carefully studied. Previously, we identified a griseofulvin-producing Xylaria species isolated from Vaccinium angustifolium, V. corymbosum, and Pinus strobus. Morphological and genomic analysis determ...
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...
This review summarises developments on the analysis of various matrices for mycotoxins that have been published in the period from mid-2018 to mid-2019. Analytical methods to determine aflatoxins, Alternaria toxins, ergot alkaloids, fumonisins, ochratoxins, patulin, trichothecenes, and zearalenone are covered in individual sections. Advances in sam...
Ginseng root is an economically valuable crop in Canada at high risk of yield loss caused by the pathogenic fungus Ilyonectria mors-panacis, formerly known as Cylindrocarpon destructans. While this pathogen has been well-characterized from morphological and genetic perspectives, little is known about the secondary metabolites it produces and their...
Mycotoxins are one of the great global challenges to agri-food and feed safety. Industry requires fast, reliable, and economical testing methods for the most important regulated mycotoxins to manage this problem. Climate change and changes in agricultural practice are complicating this situation, triggering the movement of some mycotoxins into new...
Fusarium head blight (FHB) caused by Fusarium graminearum is a disease that results in yield loss and mycotoxin contamination in wheat globally. This study assessed the effect of a plant biostimulant prepared from a brown macroalga Ascophyllum nodosum (Liquid Seaweed Extract; LSE) alone and in combination with chitosan in controlling Fusarium. Whea...
The cover image is based on the Research Article Tracing major metabolites of quinoxaline‐1,4‐dioxides in abalone with high‐performance liquid chromatography tandem positive‐mode electrospray ionization mass spectrometry by Yanshen Li et al., https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.9819.
Cover credit: Cover image © Juan Li, Jacob P. Walsh and Yanshen Li Image...
Background
It is estimated that 20–30% of ginseng crops in Canada are lost to root rot each harvest. This disease is commonly caused by fungal infection with Ilyonectria, previously known as Cylindrocarpon. Previous reports have linked the virulence of fungal disease to the production of siderophores, a class of small-molecule iron chelators. Howev...
The sub‐optimal content of the sulfur containing amino acids methionine and cysteine prevent common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) from being an excellent source of protein. Nutritional improvements to this significant crop require a better understanding of the biosynthesis of sulfur containing compounds including the non‐proteogenic amino acid S‐methyl...
Fusarium graminearum is responsible for production of the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) on maize and wheat in Ontario, Canada. It has been understood since the early 1980s that in most parts of Canada, the predominant chemotype of F. graminearum is 15ADON, and not the 3ADON chemotype mainly found in Europe and Asia. The discovery of F. graminearum...
Location and GPS coordinates of representative strains collected from Ontario, Canada in 2015.
(PDF)
This study examined the effect of climate change (CC) abiotic factors of temperature (20, 25, 30 °C), water activity (aw; 0.995, 0.98) and CO2 exposure (400, 1000 ppm) may have on (a) growth, (b) gene expression of biosynthetic toxin genes (Tri5, Tri6, Tri16), and (c) T-2/HT-2 toxins and associated metabolites by Fusarium langsethiae on oat-based m...
BACKGROUND
Due to the comprehensive application of quinoxaline‐1,4‐dioxides (QdNOs) in aquaculture, QdNOs and metabolites are often detected in marine food, including abalone. QdNOs are reported to exhibitcytotoxicity, photoallergy, mutagenicity and carcinogenicity activities. To monitor forcontamination of QdNOS in abalone and assess dietary expos...
Mycotoxins are one of the great global challenges to agri-food and feed safety. Industry requires fast, reliable, and economical testing methods for the most important regulated mycotoxins to manage this problem. Climate change and changes in agricultural practice are complicating this situation, triggering the movement of some mycotoxins into new...
The veA gene is a key regulator governing morphogenetic development and secondary metabolism in many fungi. Here, we characterized and disrupted a veA ortholog in an ochratoxigenic Aspergillus niger strain. Morphological development, ochratoxin A (OTA) biosynthesis and oxidative stress tolerance in the wild-type and veA disruption strains were furt...
Rationale
Microbial natural products are often biosynthesized as classes of structurally related compounds that have similar MS/MS fragmentation patterns. Mining MS/MS datasets for precursor ions that share diagnostic or common features enables entire chemical classes to be identified, including novel derivatives that have previously been unreporte...
The emergence of resistance to antibacterial drugs and pesticides in water is unprecedented. This may have adverse consequences to human health and ecological systems. This paper first sought the identification of a wide range of pharmaceuticals and pesticides in two secondary effluent wastewaters (SEW) of different quality characteristics, followe...
Background
While the global market for probiotics is soon to reach in excess of US$50 billion, the continent of Africa has been largely ignored, despite these products having the ability to reduce the burden of disease and death.
Trial design
The present randomised, blinded, placebo-controlled clinical trial was undertaken in Rwanda, a country dev...
Background: Neonicotinoids are among the most widely used insecticides. Recently, there has been concern associated with unintended adverse effects on honeybees and aquatic invertebrates at low parts-per-trillion levels. Objective: There is a need for LC-MS/MS methods that are capable of high-throughput measurements of the most widely used neonicot...
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...
Despite the benefits to the global food supply and agricultural economies, pesticides are believed to pose a threat to the health of both humans and wildlife. Chlorpyrifos (CP), a commonly used organophosphate insecticide, has poor target specificity and causes acute neurotoxicity in a wide range of species via the suppression of acetylcholinestera...
Perturbations to the vaginal microbiota can lead to dysbiosis, including bacterial vaginosis (BV), which affects a large portion of the female population. In a healthy state, the vaginal microbiota is characterized by low diversity and colonization by Lactobacillus spp., whereas in BV, these species are displaced by a highly diverse population of b...
Cationic surfactants such as benzalkonium chlorides (BACs) are used extensively as biocides in hospitals, food processing industries, and personal care products. BACs have the potential to reach the rooting zone of crop plants and BACs might thereby enter the food chain. The two most commonly used BACs, benzyl dimethyl dodecyl ammonium chloride (BD...
Aflatoxin exposure is an important public health concern in sub-Saharan Africa as well as parts of Latin America and Asia. In addition to hepatocellular carcinoma, chronic aflatoxin exposure is believed to play a role in childhood growth impairment. The most reliable biomarker of chronic aflatoxin exposure is the aflatoxin-albumin adduct, as measur...
Rationale:
Metallothioneins (MTs) are a class of dynamic proteins that have been investigated extensively using mass spectrometric methods due to their amenability to ionization. Here we detect the formation of oxidative and non-oxidative MT dimers using high resolution mass spectrometry which has previously been overlooked with lower resolution t...
Plasmodesmata (PD), unique to the plant kingdom, are structurally complex microchannels that cross the cell wall to establish symplastic communication between neighboring cells. Viral intercellular movement occurs through PD. To better understand the involvement of PD in viral infection, we conducted a quantitative proteomic study on the PD-enriche...
MicroRNA156 (miR156) regulates a network of downstream genes to affect plant growth and development. We previously generated alfalfa (Medicago sativa) plants that overexpress homologous miR156 (MsmiR156OE), and identified three of its SPL target genes. These plants exhibited increased vegetative yield, delayed flowering and longer roots. In this st...
Sulfur plays a crucial role in plant metabolism, protein biosynthesis, homeostasis and defense mechanisms. Like in other grain legumes, the protein quality of common bean is limited by the sub-optimal concentration of methionine and cysteine. S-methylcysteine is a non-proteinogenic sulfur amino acid, characteristically found in the Phaseolus as wel...
Pesticides are used extensively in food production to maximize crop yields. However, neonicotinoid insecticides exert unintentional toxicity to honey bees (Apis mellifera) that may partially be associated with massive population declines referred to as colony collapse disorder. We hypothesized that imidacloprid (common neonicotinoid; IMI) exposure...
Several moderately pathogenic Fusarium species produce enniatins, a family of cyclohexadepsipeptides with insecticidal and phytotoxic activities. A semi-targeted LC-MS/MS approach utilizing reversed-phase C8 UHPLC column chromatography that combines both product ion and neutral loss filtering was developed to detect enniatins and structurally-relat...
Probiotic yogurt, comprised of a Fiti sachet containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 and Streptococcus thermophilus C106, has been used in the developing world, notably Africa, to alleviate malnutrition and disease. In sub-Saharan African countries, fermentation of cereals such as millet, is culturally significant. The aim of this study was to inve...
Ten polyketide specialized metabolites, epoxynemanione A, nemanifuranones A-F, and nemanilactones
A-C, were isolated from the culture filtrate of Nemania serpens (Pers.) Grey (1821), an endophytic fungus
from a Riesling grapevine (Vitis vinifera) found in Canada's Niagara region. Additionally, four known
metabolites 2-(hydroxymethyl)-3-methoxy-benz...
Buildings that have been flooded often have high concentrations of Trichoderma spores in the air while drying. Inhaled spores, spore and mycelial fragments contain large amounts of fungal glucan and natural products that contribute to the symptoms associated with indoor mold exposures. In this study, we considered both small molecules and peptaibol...
A strain of Hypoxylon submonticulosum was isolated as an endophyte from a surface-sterilized leaf of a cultivated raspberry (Rubus idaeus). The liquid culture extract displayed growth inhibition activity against Saccharomyces cerevisiae using a disc diffusion assay. The extract’s major component was identified as a new natural product, trienylfuran...