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Mushrooms and derivates are well known to the scientific community for having different health benefits and exhibit a wide range of pharmacological activities, including lipid-lowering, antihypertensive, antidiabetic, antimicrobic, antiallergic, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, immunomodulating, neuroprotective and osteoprotective actions. In Europe, medical mushrooms are mainly marketed in the form of food supplements as single components or combined with other nutraceuticals. In this context, the first peculiarity that distinguishes it is the safety established through the “history of consumption” that characterizes that mushroom. However, the cultivation of medicinal mushrooms on a large scale is performed mainly in China, where most of the production facilities do not have internationally recognized good manufacturing practices, despite that many European companies that sell myotherapies are supplied by Chinese manufacturers. This is particularly evident in Italy, where an arsenal of mushroom products is marketed in the form of powders and extracts not always of ascertained origin and sometimes of doubtful taxonomic identification, and thus not meeting the quality criteria required. The growing interest in mycotherapy involves a strong commitment from the scientific community to propose supplements of safe origin and genetic purity as well as to promote clinical trials to evaluate its real effects on humans. The purpose of this research is to analyze different mushroom-based dietary supplements used in medicine as monotherapy on the Italian market and to evaluate their composition and quality. The molecular identification of the sequences with those deposited in GenBank allowed for identifying 6 out of 19 samples, matching with those deposited belonging to the species indicated in the label, i.e., Lentinula edodes (samples 1, 4, 12 and 18) and Ganoderma lucidum (samples 5 and 10). Samples containing Ganoderma, labeled in the commercial product as G. lucidum, showed sequences that showed homology of 100% and 99% with G. resinaceum and G. sichuanense. An additional investigation was carried out in order to determine the active fungal ingredients, such as ergosterol, aflatoxins, heavy metals, nicotine and total glucan. The results obtained and shown in the manuscript highlight how the data were not only in line with what is expected with respect to what is indicated in the labels.

Mycotoxigenic fungi and pests are responsible for quality losses during medium to long-term storage of grain. Since gas composition is considered one of the most important abiotic conditions that influence fungal and pest growth, the use of a controlled atmosphere with a very high N2 concentration is a valid tool to control grain quality in post-harvest. Aim of the present work is to evaluate the use of a highly purified N2 controlled atmosphere – generated in situ by a Membrane Nitrogen Separator (Eurosider s.a.s) – for safely storage of corn and wheat grains. Two different parallel lab-scale experiments were performed in order to assess the effect of N2 atmosphere on: (1) the growth of Fusarium graminearum, Fusarium langsethiae, Aspergillus flavus and Fusarium verticillioides on agar and the production of aflatoxins on corn grains; (2) the populations of the most important post-harvest pests such as Sitophilus oryzae and Tribolium confusum on wheat grains and flour, respectively. When exposed to highly purified N2 controlled atmosphere (98.5%±0.5), growth and sporulation of all the four pathogens and aflatoxins production by Aspergillus were significantly reduced. In addition, atmosphere containing 98.5%±0.5 N2 caused the complete mortality of adults of S. oryzae after 3 days on wheat and of T. confusum after 7 days on flour. Results herewith reported suggest that N2 controlled atmosphere represents an eco-friendly tool that could be transferred to a large-scale system for grain storage in order to avoid or reduce chemical treatments.

Trichoderma genes involved in sensing of the mating partner. (PDF 285 kb)

Intraspecific variation in Trichoderma harzianum as estimated based on the analysis of the two strains. (PDF 232 kb)

Improvement of published genome annotations and verification of strains. (PDF 185 kb)

Unique genes shared only between facultative pathogenic Trichoderma species. (PDF 165 kb)

Polysaccharide decomposition by Trichoderma. (PDF 201 kb)

International audience; Juglans regia (walnut) is a species belonging to the family Juglandaceae. Broadly spread in diverse temperate and subtropical regions, walnut is primarily cultivated for its nuts. In France, Colletotrichum sp. on walnut was detected for the first time in 2007; in 2011 the disease led to 50–70% losses in nut production. A combined approach of metabarcoding analysis and multi-locus genetic characterization of isolated strains has been used for taxonomic designation and to study the genetic variability of this pathogen in France. Evidence indicates that four Colletotrichum species are associated with walnut in France: 3 belong to the C. acutatum species complex and 1 to the C. gloeosporioides species complex. Results also show that C. godetiae is the most abundant species followed by C. fioriniae; while C. nymphaeae and another Colletotrichum sp. belonging to the C. gloeosporioides complex are found rarely. Representative isolates of detected species were also used to confirm pathogenicity on walnut fruits. The results show a high variability of lesion’s dimensions among isolates tested. This study highlights the genetic and pathogenic heterogeneity of Colletotrichum species associated with walnut anthracnose in France providing useful information for targeted treatments or selection of resistant cultivars, in order to better control the disease.

Phylogenetic analysis of the 133 Colletotrichum spp. listed in Additional file 1: Table S1 based on a multilocus concatenated alignment of the ITS, TUB2, ACT and GAPDH genes. A Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm was used to generate phylogenetic trees with Bayesian probabilities using MrBayes 3.2.1. The species complexes described by Cannon et al. [2] and Liu et al. [49] as well as C. acutatum species complex clades described by Damm et al. [5] are shown. Monilochaetes infuscans was used as an outgroup. (PDF 593 kb)

Phylogenetic analysis of the 133 Colletotrichum spp. listed in Additional file 1: Table S1 based on a multilocus concatenated alignment of the ITS, TUB2, ACT and GAPDH genes. A Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm was used to generate phylogenetic trees with Bayesian probabilities using MrBayes 3.2.1. The species complexes described by Cannon et al. [2] and Liu et al. [49] as well as C. acutatum species complex clades described by Damm et al. [5] are shown. Monilochaetes infuscans was used as an outgroup. (PDF 593 kb)