Epiphytic microflora and mycotoxin content in meadows–Is plant biodiversity affecting fungal contamination?

RESEARCH ARTICLE Epiphytic microflora and mycotoxin content in meadows–Is plant biodiversity affecting fungal contamination? Ivana KolackovaID1☯*, Barbora Smolkova1☯, Jiri Skladanka1☯, Petr Kouril2☯, Eva HrudovaID3☯ 1 Department of Animal Nutrition and Forage Production, Faculty of AgriSciences, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic, 2 Department of Agrochemistry, Soil Science, Microbiology and Plant Nutrition, Faculty of AgriSciences, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic, 3 Department of Crop Science, Breeding and Plant Medicine, Faculty of AgriSciences, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic ☯ These authors contributed equally to this work. * ivana.kolackova@mendelu.cz Abstract Ecosystem services are an important aspect of grasslands utilization; however, they are often contradictory to their main purpose, which is a production of good quality and safe feed. In this study, we evaluated the difference between grass monocultures and species- rich mixtures in terms of epiphytic microflora and mycotoxin contamination levels. We hypothesized that higher species diversity would lead to higher microbial counts, which could lead to higher mycotoxin contamination risk. Differences in epiphytic fungal, yeast and total amount of microorganisms (CFU g -1) depending on the species diversity in the field has been evaluated by cultivation method. Concentration of deoxynivalenol (DON), zearale- none (ZEN) and aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) was measured by ELISA. Results are suggesting that

higher total amount of microorganisms were found in monocultures, however, fungal and yeast counts were higher in species-rich mixtures. Higher species diversity of grasses was related to higher total microbial count (TMC) and yeast colonization of phyllosphere. Our results suggest higher risk of fungal phyllosphere colonization of species-rich mixtures with higher biodiversity and therefore higher risk of mycotoxin contamination of such feed. Introduction Grasslands can be found all over the world and are one of the most abundant types of ecosys- tems on the planet. With the total area of 49×106 km2, they serve a crucial role in feeding world’s animal production [1]. However, production of potentially high-quality and low-cost fodder is only one of many important functions. Non-productive aspects of grasslands such as anti-erosion, phytosanitary and structure-forming functions are getting to the forefront of public perception in the recent years as well as the issue of maintaining biodiversity in agricul- tural land [2, 3]. These aspects are, however, only secondary for most farmers, and therefore the rise in practical public policies and potential subsidies is unavoidable for changing farmers’ PLOS ONE PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288397 September 14, 2023 1 / 11 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 OPEN ACCESS Citation: Kolackova I, Smolkova B, Skladanka J, Kouril P, Hrudova E (2023) Epiphytic microflora and mycotoxin content in meadows–Is plant biodiversity affecting fungal contamination? PLoS

ONE 18(9): e0288397. https://doi.org/10.1371/ journal.pone.0288397 Editor: Eugenio Llorens, Universitat Jaume 1, SPAIN Received: January 23, 2023 Accepted: June 23, 2023 Published: September 14, 2023 Copyright: © 2023 Kolackova et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files. Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.