Volatile Metabolite Profiling of Wheat Kernels Contaminated by Fusarium graminearum

Traditional methods used to detect fungi or mycotoxins are time-consuming and prevent real-time monitoring. In this study, solid-phase microextraction combined with full two-dimensional gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry was utilized to detect volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced by fungi during grain infestation predictive F. graminearum PH-1 infestation in wheat. The results show that the VOCs emitted by F. graminearum can distinguish strains at different growth stages. The growth matrices (potato dextrose agar medium and wheat kernels) play a large role in VOC production. The infection of wheat sample F. graminearum showed that a specific relationship between VOCs and the composition of fungal flora, for example, 5-pentyl-cyclohexa-1,3-diene, 3-hexanone, and 1,3-octadiene, was positively correlated with the infection rate of PH-1. In the correlation study of fungal mycotoxins and VOCs, zearalenone produced by F. graminearum was predicted based on the VOCs released. Further analysis determined the correlation of three VOCs, 6-butyl-1,4-cycloheptadiene, hexahydro-3-methylenebenzofuran-2(3H)-one, and (E,E)-3,5-octadien-2-one, with zearalenone production, confirming the ability of VOCs as characteristic markers of mycotoxins.