Yanpo Yao

Climate change intensifies mycotoxin contamination through rising temperatures, elevated CO₂, and altered precipitation. Global surveys reveal a high and widespread prevalence of major mycotoxins in staple cereals, with low-income countries bearing the greatest burden. This escalating contamination poses a growing threat to global food security, compromising both food availability and safety. To mitigate these risks, we propose four actions: establish a predictive global surveillance system integrating climate-crop-fungal models, deploy field-ready biosensors, scale up climate-resilient agriculture and resistant varieties, and implement a multi-stakeholder governance protocol focused on developing regions. These measures offer feasible solutions to protect global food security in a changing climate.

1. Maize is a globally important crop serving as food, feed, and an industrial raw material. According to national statistics, maize is China’s largest grain crop by sown area, with the national so...

Deep straw incorporation is considered a key tillage practice for improving soil health and reducing crop disease. However, how the depth of straw return affects soil microbial communities and associated maize ear rot and mycotoxin contamination remains poorly understood. Here, a three-year field experiment was conducted with four straw incorporation depths: shallow return (SD, straw depth 0–5 cm), middle return (MD, straw depth 10–20 cm), deep return (DD, straw depth 20–30 cm), and ultra-deep return (UD, straw depth 30–40 cm). Results showed that deeper straw incorporation increased soil bulk density by up to 5.6%, increased total pore area by up to 162.5%, and enhanced soil organic carbon, available nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium by 22.5%–152.1%. Soil quality index (SQI) increased with tillage depth, with UD exhibiting a fourfold higher SQI than SD, driven largely by enhanced microbial contributions (explaining > 35% of SQI). Deeper incorporation enriched beneficial taxa (e.g., Trichoderma, Enterobacteriaceae) by more than 2-fold while suppressing pathogenic fungi (e.g., Fusarium, Aspergillus) in rhizosphere soil and root endosphere, and fostered more complex and stable microbial co-occurrence networks in bulk soil. Consequently, DD and UD reduced ear rot incidence by 33.3%–66.7% and disease index by 20.0%–50.0% relative to SD. DON and ZEN concentrations were also kept within safe thresholds. Structural equation modeling confirmed that deep straw incorporation mitigates maize ear rot and mycotoxin contamination primarily by improving soil properties and shaping functional microbial assemblages. These findings demonstrate that deep straw incorporation (20–40 cm) enhances soil health, restructures microbial communities, and effectively reduces maize ear rot and mycotoxin risks, providing a sustainable tillage strategy for safer maize production.

Mycotoxins, a category of fungal secondary metabolites, frequently contaminate food products and pose a severe threat to human health. Aspergillus, a genus of fungi, is capable of producing mycotoxins, with aflatoxins (AFs) and ochratoxins being its principal types. Aspergillus mycotoxins can contaminate a wide range of crops and their derivatives, such as maize, wheat, rice, minor cereals, and peanuts, thereby threatening food and feed safety. In the paper, the related biosynthesis genes and multifaceted biosynthesis pathways of these mycotoxins are first discussed in detail, and elucidated several global regulators, including growth conditions, oxidative stress, and cell signal. Furthermore, how global shifts in temperature and water availability, driven by climate change (including rising temperatures, increased heavy rainfall frequency, prolonged droughts, and elevated carbon dioxide levels), are key determinants of Aspergillus proliferation and mycotoxin production are explored. Finally, to safeguard animal and human health from the detrimental impacts of Aspergillus mycotoxins, the effective and convenient analytical techniques and management strategies for the detection and prevention of contamination are analyzed. Overall, this review provides effective detection techniques and promising solutions to the global contamination of food with Aspergillus mycotoxins, which is of great significance to ensuring food security and protecting people's lives and health.

Pepper Phytophthora blight caused by Phytophthora capsici results in substantial losses in global pepper cultivation. The use of biocontrol agents with the dual functions of disease suppression and crop growth promotion is a green and sustainable way of managing this pathogen. In this study, six biocontrol strains of Trichoderma with high antagonistic activity against P. capsici were isolated and screened from the rhizosphere soil of healthy peppers undergoing long-term continuous cultivation. Morphological identification and molecular biological identification revealed that strains 2213 and 2221 were T. harzianum, strains 5111, 6311, and 6321 were T. brevicompactum, and strain 7111 was T. virens. The results showed that T. brevicompactum 6311 had the greatest inhibitory effect against P. capsici. The inhibition rate of 6311 on the mycelial growth of P. capsici was 82.22% in a double-culture test, whereas it reached 100% in a fermentation liquid culture test. Meanwhile, the pepper fruit tests showed that 6311 was 29% effective against P. capsici on pepper, and a potting test demonstrated that the preventive and controlling effect of 6311 on pepper epidemics triggered by P. capsici was 55.56%. The growth-promoting effect, germination potential, germination rate, radicle-embryonic axis length, germination index, and fresh weight of peppers cultured in the 6311 fermentation broth were significantly increased compared with the results for the control group. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that 6311 achieved the parasitism of P. capsici, producing siderophores and the growth hormone indoleacetic acid (IAA) to achieve disease-suppressive and growth-promoting functions. Transcriptomic results indicated that genes encoding proteins involved in plant disease resistance, namely flavanone 3-hydroxylase (F3H) and growth transcription factor (AUX22), were generally upregulated after the application of 6311. This study demonstrated that 6311 exhibits significant bioprotective and growth-promoting functions.

With an advancement in global climate change, the frequency of extreme climatic events, such as high temperature, drought, and flooding, has increased. Meanwhile, outbreaks of crop fungal diseases are becoming more frequent and serious, and crop growth and food production are seriously threatened. This article focuses on the climate change-related aggravation of crop fungal diseases; summarizes the progress in research on the impact of climate change on soil-borne fungal diseases, air-borne fungal diseases, and seed-borne fungal diseases; and discusses the conventional methods for diagnosing crop fungal diseases. On the basis of comparative analysis, the concept of ecological control is proposed; ecological control can maintain the dynamic balance of crop–biology–soil, provide a good environment for the healthy growth of crops, and provide a new fungal disease control method in the context of climate change.