Environmental Impact on Mycotoxin Production in Plant Pathogens

Phytopathogenic fungi have the potential to significantly impact agricultural productivity by compromising plant health, crop yield, and quality through disease and the production of mycotoxins. These chemical compounds can persist on crops and in their by-products, even after harvest which raises concerns for food safety. Research has established the regulation of mycotoxin production is controlled by genes arranged in clusters in the genome, by global regulators, and by epigenetic mechanisms. Furthermore, environmental conditions such as temperature, precipitation and humidity have been identified as key influences on the growth and toxic output of these fungi. While strides have been made in understanding these processes, the detailed mechanisms by which environmental factors impact mycotoxin pathways remain unclear.

This Research Topic aims to bridge the knowledge gap regarding how environmental conditions influence mycotoxin biosynthesis in phytopathogenic fungi. It seeks to reveal new findings on the production and regulation of mycotoxins under various environmental scenarios, focusing on how these conditions affect fungal population dynamics. The goal is to synthesize research that explains how environmental stressors modulate fundamental fungal processes such as growth, sporulation, and pathogenicity, contributing to enhanced mycotoxin production.

To gather further insights within these defined boundaries, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:
• Molecular cues involved fungal pathogens in response to environmental factors
• Factors regulating the biosynthesis of mycotoxins and secondary metabolites
• Biosynthesis, regulation, and production of mycotoxins under different abiotic stress
• Relationship between mycotoxin production and primary processes in fungal pathogens
• Relationships between mycotoxigenic fungi and microbial communities
• Role of the mycotoxins in microbe/host interactions.
• Omics strategies associated with fungi production of mycotoxin

This Research Topic is open to original articles, brief reports, and reviews that offer novel insights or outline current research in the biological and molecular mechanisms driving mycotoxin production influenced by environmental factors.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Fungi infection process, Genetic regulation in fungi, Fungi biology, Plant pathogens, Secondary metabolite, Mycotoxin, Epigenetic mechanism

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.