Development of novel molecular and MS methods to assure quality of agricultural products
Abstract
Since EU legislative regulates maximum limits of undesired contaminants in food and the labeling of certain food compounds the demand for sensitive and rapid test systems increases. In particular natural occurring toxins, mainly of fungal origin, reduce the quality of agricultural products. Novel PCR screening methods identify and quantify specifically the DNA of these mycotoxin producing fungi and allow thereby an early classification of potentially contaminated products. To obtain reliable PCR results the whole analysis procedure has to be optimized: evaluation of sampling methods, the DNA isolation protocols must be adapted to the particular needs and furthermore, stable DNA standards have to be developed for accurate quantification. In addition to mycotoxins other undesired compounds require correct labeling in the European Union market: food allergens and genetically modified organisms. For both classes of substances numerous PCR-based assays have previously been published. These available tests will be transferred to the IFA-Tulln and will be adapted for our particular needs. However, the design of rapid test methods always requires precise reference methods as a control. High accurate mass spectrometry assays will be developed to act as a reference method for PCR assays. New assays will be designed to allow the parallel detection of numerous targets in a single analysis run. And to further increase the accuracy of the measurements internal 13C standards will be used for the MS-based analysis of mycotoxins. Besides the increased accuracy and throughput of the methods the project focuses on the detection and quantification of toxin-conjugates which are synthesized by plants. Plants often detoxify harmful compounds by conjugating them to e.g. a sugar molecule. Due to the changed properties of these “masked mycotoxins” they are frequently not found with conventional procedures. These new methods will be applied to a high number of cereal samples to investigate correlations between toxin content of wheat and maize and the fungal infection.
keywords mass spectrometry PCR
Publikationen
Project staff
Rudolf Krska
Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Rudolf Krska
rudolf.krska@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-97301, 97302
BOKU Project Leader
01.10.2009 - 30.09.2014
Franz Berthiller
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Franz Berthiller
franz.berthiller@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-97371
Project Staff
01.10.2009 - 30.09.2014
Michael Sulyok
Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Michael Sulyok
michael.sulyok@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-97312
Project Staff
01.10.2009 - 30.09.2014
BOKU partners
External partners
Vienna University of Technology, Division of process engineering
none
partner