Talk:Mycotoxin

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Untitled[edit]

I have a question. Why are mycotoxins actually produced in the first place.... what is it that makes them so useful to the fungus that they invest their energy into producing them?

It is a very interesting question. Some mycotoxins (trichothecenes) help filamentous fumgi to infect plants. Zearalenone regulates reproduction of consuments (animals), that eat plants. Some mycotoxins act like antibiotics - against bacteria, or like fungicides - against another fungi. Mycotoxins participate in complex ecological interactions, the most part of wich is stil anclear.

In my opinion mycotoxins may simply be a waste product similar to alcohol.

Just because there is a function provided by the substance doesn't necessarily mean that it's anything other than a waste product.

I recommend a more existential approach to understanding science and the world around us; just because most things have a purpose doesn't mean that most things have meaning. -Entropy —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.66.229.25 (talk) 15:36, 12 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Now I was also looking for the mycotoxins' ecological role in this article. Whatever you might have had in mind by "existential approach to understanding science", most substances secreted by a living organisms can be identified as having a role in that organism's ecological success. Even if something is a byproduct from a point of view, it is soon becoming a factor of success to survive and overcompete against other organisms that would otherwise occupy the same resources.

Though I have no resources available at hand by the moment, but toxins produced by bacteria and fungi are generally known to help their producers to compete against the other groups that would occupy the same ecological niche by suppressing or interrupting the other competing groups biochemical processes of growth, or metabolism, or reproduction. This has nothing to do with any kind of aim, or meaning, it is just the blind evolutional selection and adaptation to the effect the secretions might have on other living organisms.

Mycotoxins' ecological role is likely different for each type of toxin and each species producing it, and there might be some mycotoxins with no apparent benefit to their producers, however mostly they do have a positive role in the competition for the fungi and further research is likely to find more such connections.

Since it is by no means a new discovery I would expect the encyclopedia-article to have a mention of this aspect of mycotoxins.(80.98.114.70 (talk) 18:13, 6 February 2016 (UTC)).[reply]

Human deaths[edit]

I have added a section on the deaths in Kenya a fews years ago linked to mycotoxins in maize. There are a number of peer reviewed references to this, I picked what I felt was the most useful. Some of the information, such as the linkage to farmers harvesting early to prevent thefts from fields I got from talking to one of the pathologists (J M Wagacher) who is working on mycotoxin causing fungi in Kenya at a recent conference (The 15th International Reinhardsbrunn Symposium). His paper from that conference, when published, may have further information.

Ergot[edit]

Should ergot be mentioned as a mycotoxin? Dforest 14:20, 8 November 2005 (UTC) how does mycotoxin spoils the grains?[reply]

———

On the bottom of the article someone wrote:

"Strictly speaking, ethanol, also known as ethyl alcohol or grain alcohol, that is produced when certain species of yeast (most importantly, Saccharomyces cerevisiae) metabolize sugar in the absence of oxygen, is a mycotoxin as well."

I do not think this is correct. Not every (human-) toxic substance produced by fungi is called a mycotoxin.

In fiction section?[edit]

Is there a reason to keep the in fiction section? What does it contribute to the article? RJFJR (talk) 16:58, 22 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Candida & Mycotoxins[edit]

I think a section on candida and mycotoxins would be of great benefit to this article and more informative to it's readers. 71.40.80.173 (talk) 17:26, 20 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified (February 2018)[edit]

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Almost useless[edit]

This article is practically useless. A toxic secondary metabolite is not a simplification of "fungus poison" so much as the fore of a journey into complexity, which is of little use to most people. Of the list of 8 examples, only patulin is described on its article as a white powdery substance, the only readily helpful piece of information I can find from Wikipedia on the whole topic. Telling us a mycotoxin is B1, B2, G1, and G2 is not explaining it unfortunately. ~ R.T.G 20:10, 14 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

what information were you looking for that you didn't find here? 05:11, 17 October 2021 (UTC) beanstash (talk) 05:11, 17 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]