Production of Zearalenone and Deoxynivalenol in Commercial Sweet Corn. L. P. Hart, Assistant Professor, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology and the Pesticide Research Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing 48824. W. E. Braselton, Jr., Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, and T. C. Stebbins, Laboratory Research Technician, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Michigan State University, East Lansing 48824. Plant Dis. 66:1133-1135. Accepted for publication 16 March 1982. Copyright 1982 American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-66-1133.

Deoxynivalenol (vomitoxin) was identified in 33 commercial sweet corn (Zea mays) hybrids inoculated with Gibberella zeae. The concentration ranged from 20 to 500 µg/g of infected plant tissue and increased in diseased tissue as disease severity ratings increased. Zearalenone (F-2 mycotoxin) was identified in only seven of the 29 inoculated hybrids, with the concentration ranging from 0.4 to 270 µg/g in infected tissue. All three isolates of G. zeae used in the inoculation tests produced deoxynivalenol, but only isolate W-8 produced zearalenone. Mold development in ears of inoculated sweet corn hybrids varied from less than 25 to more than 75% of the ear infected.

Keyword(s): ear rot, Fusarium roseum f. sp. graminearum.