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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 57(9)

Alkaloid production by isolates of the sorghum ergot pathogen (Claviceps africana) from Australia and other countries

Barry Blaney A C , Sukumar Chakraborty B and Sally-Ann Murray A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, Locked Mail Bag No. 4, Moorooka, Qld 4105, Australia.

B CSIRO Plant Industry, Queensland Bioscience Precinct, 306 Carmody Road, St Lucia, Qld 4067, Australia.

C Corresponding author. Email: Barry.Blaney@dpi.qld.gov.au

Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 57(9) 1023-1028 https://doi.org/10.1071/AR05334
Submitted: 21 September 2005  Accepted: 1 May 2006   Published: 30 August 2006

Abstract

Isolates of Claviceps africana from Australia, Africa, Asia, and America were tested for the production of dihydroergosine (DHES), and its biogenic precursors dihydroelymoclavine (DHEL) and festuclavine (FEST), in culture. Several growth media were evaluated to optimise alkaloid production with little success. The best of these involved 2-stage culturing on high-sucrose substrate. Australian C. africana isolates varied widely and inconsistently in alkaloid production, with DHES concentrations in mycelium ranging from: <0.1 to 9 mg DHES/kg; <0.1 to 1.6 mg DHEL/kg; and <0.1 to 0.4 mg FEST/kg. In a separate experiment using similar culturing techniques, DHES was produced by 2 of 3 Australian isolates, 1 of 3 USA isolates, 1 of 4 Indian isolates, the sole Puerto Rican isolate, the sole Japanese isolate, but not the sole South African isolate. In this experiment, DHES concentrations detected in mycelium of Australian isolates (0.1–1.0 mg DHES/kg) were of similar magnitude to isolates from other countries (0.2–1.8 mg DHES/kg). Three C. africana isolates, including one that produced only traces of alkaloid in culture after 8 weeks, were inoculated onto panicles of sterile male sorghum plants. After 8 weeks, all 3 isolates produced 10–19 mg DHES/kg in the panicles, demonstrating that the growing plant favoured more consistent alkaloid production than culture medium.

Additional keywords: mycotoxin, fungus, sclerotium, sphacelium.


Acknowledgments

The work was funded in part by the Grains Research and Development Corporation. We deeply appreciate the expert technical assistance of Mr Ross Perrott and Mr Leonard Ford. Dr Paul Tooley, Dr Ranajit Bandyopadhyay, and Dr Birte Komolong provided cultures, for which we are also grateful.


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