Genetic diversity of aflatoxin-producing Aspergillus flavus isolated from selected groundnut growing agro-ecological zones of Uganda

Authors

Amos Acur, National Agricultural Research Laboratories, Kampala, Uganda
Renee Arias, United States Department of AgricultureFollow
Steven Odongo, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
Samuel Tuhaise, National Agricultural Research Laboratories, Kampala, Uganda
National Agricultural Research Laboratories, Kampala, Uganda, National Agricultural Research Laboratories, Kampala, Uganda
John Adriko, National Agricultural Research Laboratories, Kampala, Uganda
Dennis Muhanguzi, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
Stephen Buah, National Agricultural Research Laboratories, Kampala, UgandaFollow
Andrew Kiggundu, National Agricultural Research Laboratories, Kampala, Uganda

ORCID IDs

Stephen Buah http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3612-6452

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2020

Citation

Acur et al. BMC Microbiology (2020) 20:252

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12866-020-01924-2

Comments

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Abstract

Background: Groundnut pre- and post-harvest contamination is commonly caused by fungi from the Genus Aspergillus. Aspergillus flavus is the most important of these fungi. It belongs to section Flavi; a group consisting of aflatoxigenic (A. flavus, A. parasiticus and A. nomius) and non-aflatoxigenic (A. oryzae, A. sojae and A. tamarii) fungi. Aflatoxins are food-borne toxic secondary metabolites of Aspergillus species associated with severe hepatic carcinoma and children stuntedness. Despite the well-known public health significance of aflatoxicosis, there is a paucity of information about the prevalence, genetic diversity and population structure of A. flavus in different groundnut growing agroecological zones of Uganda. This cross-sectional study was therefore conducted to fill this knowledge gap.

Results: The overall pre- and post-harvest groundnut contamination rates with A. flavus were 30.0 and 39.2% respectively. Pre- and post-harvest groundnut contamination rates with A. flavus across AEZs were; 2.5 and 50.0%; (West Nile), 55.0 and 35.0% (Lake Kyoga Basin) and 32.5 and 32.5% (Lake Victoria Basin) respectively. There was no significant difference (χ² =2, p = 0.157) in overall pre- and post-harvest groundnut contamination rates with A. flavus and similarly no significant difference (χ² =6, p = 0.199) was observed in the pre- and post-harvest contamination of groundnut with A. flavus across the three AEZs. The LKB had the highest incidence of aflatoxin-producing Aspergillus isolates while WN had no single Aspergillus isolate with aflatoxin-producing potential. Aspergillus isolates from the pre-harvest groundnut samples had insignificantly higher incidence of aflatoxin production (χ²= 2.667, p = 0.264) than those from the post-harvest groundnut samples. Overall, A. flavus isolates exhibited moderate level (92%, p = 0.02) of genetic diversity across the three AEZs and low level (8%, p = 0.05) of genetic diversity within the individual AEZs. There was a weak positive correlation (r = 0.1241, p = 0.045) between genetic distance and geographic distance among A. flavus populations in the LKB, suggesting that genetic differentiation in the LKB population might be associated to geographic distance. A very weak positive correlation existed between genetic variation and geographic location in the entire study area (r = 0.01, p = 0.471), LVB farming system (r = 0.0141, p = 0.412) and WN farming system (r= 0.02, p = 0.478). Hierarchical clustering using the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic means (UPGMA) revealed two main clusters of genetically similar A. flavus isolates.

Conclusions: These findings provide evidence that genetic differentiation in A. flavus populations is independent of geographic distance. This information can be valuable in the development of a suitable biocontrol management strategy of aflatoxin-producing A. flavus.