LC-MS/MS Maps Mycotoxin Patterns in Italian Barley

Barley grain is a natural home for fungi, and some of these fungi produce toxins that can build up in the grain. A recent study examined barley samples from northern and central Italy in three ways. First, the research team used DNA sequencing to identify which fungi were present. Second, they used a genetic test to detect and measure the main Fusarium species responsible for Fusarium head blight, a common crop disease. Third, they used liquid chromatography paired with mass spectrometry (LC–MS) to detect and measure the toxins and other compounds produced by Fusarium and Alternaria fungi. A paper based on their efforts was published in the journal Toxins.¹

Why Study Fungi and Mycotoxins in Italian Barley?

Barley is one of the most widely grown cereals in Italy,² and the areas where it's grown fall into three broad regions with different climates, from the cool, wet north to the warmer, drier south.³ These differences in climate can make fungi more or less common, depending on how well the conditions suit their growth, as earlier studies on cereal crops have shown.⁴ “Despite several studies describing barley-associated fungi through culture-dependent or single-method approaches,’ write the authors of the paper,¹ “an integrated characterization of the barley grain mycobiota combining high-throughput sequencing (HTS), real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT–qPCR) and LC–MS/MS remains relatively uncommon.”

The research team states that there have been few studies examining the full range of fungi, the key Fusarium species, and the toxins they produce all at once across different regions of Italy. As mentioned previously, barley is an important crop for Italian farming and industry, and the weather varies a lot from region to region and from year to year, researchers, therefore, need an up-to-date picture of how the fungi growing on barley relate to toxin contamination. By combining several methods in one study, this research offers a new and more complete look at the fungi found on Italian barley and the compounds they produce.¹

What Did the Researchers Find About the Fungi and Mycotoxins in Italian Barley, and Why Does It Matter?

The researchers found both fungi that can cause disease and harmless fungi on the barley grain samples. The potentially harmful ones belonged mostly to one major fungal group (Ascomycota), while the harmless ones came from both that group and a second one (Basidiomycota). In both northern and southern Italy, Alternaria was the most common fungus in the first group, and Cryptococcus was the most common in the second. Interestingly, where certain harmless fungi such as Aureobasidium and Cryptococcus were plentiful, several disease-causing fungi tended to be scarcer.¹

Two fungi known for producing toxins, Alternaria and Fusarium, were found in the samples. Genetic testing showed that one species, Fusarium graminearum, was especially common in the north. Toxins and other compounds produced by Fusarium were generally more abundant in northern samples, while those produced by Alternaria were spread more evenly across the country, mirroring where each fungus was most common. In some cases, compounds from both fungi were found in the same grain sample.¹

“Overall,” write the authors of the paper,¹ “the results of this study provide a useful basis for phytosanitary monitoring programs, support more accurate risk assessment of multi-mycotoxin contamination, and offer indications for the development of targeted crop management and future biological control strategies aimed at mitigating fungal pressure in barley, considering the different distributions of fungal genera across Italian macro-areas. Future research,” they continue, “should experimentally validate the interactions suggested by the correlation patterns observed in this study, particularly those involving potentially beneficial microorganisms and phytopathogenic fungi, to clarify their ecological roles and assess their potential use in biological control strategies.”

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References

1. Covarelli, L.; Beccari, G.; Balducci, E. et al. High-Throughput Sequencing Study of the Mycobiota of Barley Grain Collected in Northern and Central Italy and Accumulation of Fungal Secondary Metabolites. Toxins (Basel). 2026, 18 (9), 363. DOI: 10.3390/toxins18090363
2. FAOSTAT. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations website. 2025. www.fao.org/faostat
3. Fratianni, S.; Acquaotta, F. The Climate of Italy. In: Landscapes and Landforms of Italy. In World Geographic Landscapes; Soldati, M., Marchetti, M., Eds.; Springer, 2017.
4. Scarpino, V.; Blandino, M. Effects of Durum Wheat Cultivars with Different Degrees of FHB Susceptibility Grown Under Different Meteorological Conditions on the Contamination of Regulated, Modified and Emerging Mycotoxins. Microorganisms 2021, 9 (2), 408. DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms9020408