Several genera of filamentous fungi can biosynthesize mycotoxins. They are secondary metabolites (SM) that can induce a wide range of toxic effects in humans and animals, causing great alarm for food/feed safety and public health. In many cases, the mycotoxin accumulation starts in plants because of the mycotoxigenic fungal attack. Consequently, raw materials and derived products could be contaminated by these toxic SM, becoming very dangerous for final consumers. The plant may degrade or transform the mycotoxins and in some cases, the resulting compounds may be harmless, but in other cases, they are also toxic and/or can revert to the original toxin upon appropriate stimuli, thus serving as masked mycotoxins.

Several plants can transform, and, in some cases, detoxify mycotoxins. For some toxic compounds, this host ability is well known, while, for others, very limited information is available on the possible transformation process occurring in plants. Biocontrol of mycotoxigenic fungi, using living microorganisms, is gaining momentum, but also here, little is known about how this type of control may affect the production of mycotoxins and/or their metabolism. Understanding the metabolism of mycotoxins in plants is a key aspect to counteract their spread in food/feed products and adopting adequate mitigation strategies able to reduce human and animal health risks.

For this reason, the objective of this Research Topic is to collect articles relevant to the current advances in the metabolism of mycotoxins in plants, and after the adoption of biocontrol agents. We welcome all research articles and reviews covering, but not limited to, the following topics:

• The ability of plant hosts and biocontrol agents to transform mycotoxins into their modified forms (including masked mycotoxins).

• The putative role of the metabolism of host and biocontrol agents in fungal mycotoxin production.

• Biosynthetic pathway genes in plants and biocontrol agents that contribute to resistance against mycotoxin contamination.

• Compounds from plants and biocontrol agents involved in the modulation of mycotoxin accumulation in specific host tissues.

• Formation of modified mycotoxin forms and links with genes related to resistance against fungal infection.

• Results of the metabolism of mycotoxins in plants.

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Frontiers in Plant Science

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