The fungus Fusarium graminearum, a pathogen of both wheat and maize, produces a toxin, deoxynivalenol (DON), that causes disease in livestock. A rapid test for DON in wheat was developed using the principle of fluorescence polarization (FP) immunoassay. The assay was based on the competition between DON and a novel DON-fluorescein tracer (DON-FL2) for a DON-specific monoclonal antibody in solution. The method, which is a substantial improvement over our previous DON FP immunoassay, combined a rapid (3 min) extraction step with a rapid (2 min) detection step. A series of naturally contaminated wheat and maize samples were analyzed by both FP immunoassay and liquid chromatography (HPLC−UV). For wheat the HPLC−UV and FP methods agreed well (linear regression r² = 0.936), but for maize the two methods did not (r ² = 0.849). We conclude that the FP method is useful for screening wheat, but not maize, for DON.

Keywords: Deoxynivalenol; vomitoxin; fluorescence polarization; immunoassay