title: Proposal for a uniform designation of zearalenone and its metabolites.
abstract: The Fusarium mycotoxin zearalenone is a frequent contaminant of food and feed. Up to now, different abbreviations and counting systems for the numerous positions of this macrocyclic ß-resorcylic acid lactone and its metabolites have been used. As the number of identified fungal and mammalian metabolites of zearalenone is still growing, the lack of a uniform designation makes the literature on these important toxins confusing and complicated. Here, we propose a logical set of abbreviations and a simple counting system, in order to facilitate future research communications on zearalenone and its congeners.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Applied Biosciences, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Adenauerring 20a, 76131, Karlsruhe, Germany, Manfred.Metzler@kit.edu.
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Metzler