The major Alternaria alternata allergen, Alt a 1: A reliable and specific marker of fungal contamination in citrus fruits
| Autor: | Jorge Martínez, Fardis Teifoori, Marta F. Gabriel, Idoia Postigo, Ester Suñén, Nir Uriel |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine Citrus Antigens Fungal Fungal contamination Virulence Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay Food Contamination medicine.disease_cause 01 natural sciences Microbiology Alternaria alternata law.invention Fungal Proteins 03 medical and health sciences chemistry.chemical_compound Allergen law Molecular marker medicine Humans Polymerase chain reaction biology Alternaria food and beverages General Medicine Spores Fungal biology.organism_classification Spore 030104 developmental biology chemistry Fruit 010606 plant biology & botany Food Science |
| Zdroj: | International Journal of Food Microbiology. 257:26-30 |
| ISSN: | 0168-1605 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2017.06.006 |
| Popis: | The ubiquitously present spores of Alternaria alternata can spoil a wide variety of foodstuffs, including a variety of fruits belonging to the Citrus genus. The major allergenic protein of A. alternata, Alt a 1, is a species-specific molecular marker that has been strongly associated with allergenicity and phytopathogenicity of this fungal species. This study aimed to evaluate the potential of the detection of Alt a 1 as a reliable indicator of A. alternata contamination in citrus fruits. To accomplish this aim, sixty oranges were artificially infected with a spore suspension of A. alternata. Internal fruit material was collected at different incubation times (one, two and three weeks after the fungal inoculation) and used for both total RNA extraction and protein extraction. Alt a 1 detection was then performed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification using Alt a 1 specific primers and by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The experimental model presented in this work was effective to simulate the typical Alternaria black rot phenotype and its progression. Although both PCR and ELISA techniques have been successfully carried out for detecting Alt a 1 allergen in A. alternata infected oranges, the PCR method was found to be more sensitive than ELISA. Nevertheless, ELISA results were highly valuable to demonstrate that considerable amounts of Alt a 1 are produced during A. alternata fruit infection process, corroborating the recently proposed hypothesis that this protein plays a role in the pathogenicity and virulence of Alternaria species. Such evidence suggests that the detection of Alt a 1 by PCR-based assay may be used as a specific indicator of the presence of pathogenic and allergenic fungal species, A. alternata, in fruits. This knowledge can be employed to control the fungal infection and mitigate agricultural losses as well as human exposure to A. alternata allergens and toxins. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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