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RESEARCH PROGRAM

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Keywords
ASPERGILLUS CARBONARIUS; OCHRATOXIN A; VINEYARD; BIOCONTROL; INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT; WINE; DEGRADATION PRODUCTS; CITOTOXICITY; APOPTOSYS

Biological and integrated control of Aspergillus carbonarius: effectiveness on ochratoxin A content and grape-wine chain

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
Abstract
This research is related to the EU project "WINE-OCHRA RISK" (www.ochra-wine.com) and goes deeper into an issue included in that project. The coordinator of "WINE-OCHRA RISK" and of this project is the same. Control of A. carbonarius, the key fungus for OTA production in vineyard, is a small part in "WINE-OCHRA RISK".
In this proposed project, the main purpose is minimize OTA content in grapes. Biocontrol agents active against A. carbonarius are studied for their application in organic and integrated farming.
The project has a "farm to fork" approach. Therefore, the project aims are also: the possible effect of BCAs on vinification, the identification of OTA degradation products and their toxicity, compared to OTA toxicity.
This is a multidisciplinary project where each research unit, involved in 1-2 research phases, interacts with the others, contributing with knowledge coming from different scientific areas such as plant pathology, with particular attention to mycotoxigen fungi and their biological control, food technology, especially regarding vinification, analytical chemistry, applied to food products, and applied medical science, to evaluate citotoxicity.
The project will be developed in 5 phases, not successive, but with activities that produce input for one or more further activities.
Phase 1 - Selection of BCAs, on the basis of:
- High antagonistic activity against A. carbonarius;
- Compatibility with fungicides and >>>

Principal Investigator
Paola BATTILANI Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
Research Objectives
This research is related to the EU project "WINE-OCHRA RISK" (www.ochra-wine.com) and goes deeper into an issue included in that project. The coordinator of "WINE-OCHRA RISK" and of this project is the same. Control of A. carbonarius, the key fungus for OTA production in vineyard, is a small part In "WINE-OCHRA RISK".
In this project, the main purpose is the vineyard management in organic and integrated farming to minimize OTA content in grapes. Biocontrol agents active against A. carbonarius are studied. Therefore, the project aims are: the possible effect of BCAs on vinification, the identification of OTA degradation products and their toxicity, compared to OTA toxicity.
This is a multidisciplinary project where each research unit, involved in 1-2 research phases, interacts with the others according to the following sheme.

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Research Units involved in the project:
- Research Unit Università di Piacenza, responsible Paola Battilani RU_PC
- Research Unit Università di Campobasso, responsible Vincenzo De Cicco RU_CB
- Research Unit Università di Napoli, responsible Alberto Ritieni RU_NA
- Research Unit Università di Bari, responsible Luigi Macchia RU_BA





Therefore, the main program objectives can be summarised as follows:

• Development of innovative strategies for the control of Aspergillus carbonarius on grapevine, through the >>>

Timescale
24 months
National and international background
Mycotoxins
In the developed countries, food quality is one of the most important problems for consumers (FAO, 1999). Mycotoxins (MTs) are considered very dangerous molecules for human health and they are a matter of concern in the food safety field.
MT are chemically unrelated molecules and this group of secondary metabolites shows many biological toxic activities. MTs are biosynthesised by microscopic aerobic fungi belonging to the genera Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium.
MT contamination can occur either in plant foods as a result of direct mould spoilage or in animal products as a consequence of indirect transmission into edible tissues from animals exposed to natural contaminated feed. The carry-over causes excretion of MT and detoxification metabolites in milk, meat, eggs and sometimes these metabolites are very dangerous for human health.
MT contamination of food is a very actual problem and some international organisations like FAO and WHO, assert that more than 25% of crops are contaminated by MTs (WHO, 1992).
Among MTs, ochratoxin A (OTA) is one of the most relevant. It was isolated for the first time in 1965 by van der Merwe et al (1965) from A. ochraceus; chemically, OTA is a dihydro-isocoumarin coupled to L-β-phenylalanine (Rizzo et al., 2002).
In Europe, OTA is considered the most ubiquitary MT; in fact, in Central and Northern Europe (Sweden, German, Denmark and United Kingdom) it is found in 90% of >>>