From 2002–2004 isolations were carried out to determine the kinds and abundance of microfungi from non-transgenic maize kernels damaged by the European corn borer (ECB) and from transgenic Bt-maize (enriched with delta-endotoxin from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis). Bt-maize and non-transgenic maize (Zea mays) were grown at Praha-Ruzyně and Ivanovice na Hané, Czech Republic. Thirty-one taxa of filamentous microfungi were isolated, including eight zygomycetes and twenty-three ascomycetes (anamorphic stage). Presence of ECB, corn treatment, year, locality and isolation method significantly accounted for differences in fungus communities. Bt-maize was significantly different from the treatments with non-transgenic hybrids and was often associated with the potentially toxinogenic fungi Alternaria alternata and Epicoccum nigrum. Conversely, Bt-maize had lower incidences of Fusarium spp. and Acremonium strictum.
Remešová J., Kolařík M., Prášil K. (2007): Microfungi on the kernels of transgenic and non-transgenic maize damaged by the European corn borer. – Czech Mycology 59(2): 205–213.
