Greetings friends I want to determine if my strain of fungus belonging to the genus of Curvularia is toxic to humans. Any suggestion of technique that I could use?
Grow the fungus in potato dextrose broth. Collect the mycelium of the fungus by straining through a filter paper. Store the filtrate in a refrigerator at 4 degrees celsius until required. First, determine the identity of the fungus classically from spores characteristics of the fungus, and confirm the identity of the species using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) with the fungal mycelium. Afterwards, with the PCR result, surf for the toxicity of that species (strain or biotype) of Curvularia in literature, or online mycological or medical databases.
Secondly, analyse the collected filtrate stored in the refrigerator using TLC, HPLC-MS or other chromatographic methods for presence of toxic mycotoxins.