**5. Conclusions**

In this study, we analyzed fumonisin production as well as genetic structures of five *F. verticillioides* populations isolated from maize kernels in five Mediterranean countries.

The characterization of a selected number of strains per country does not allow a general conclusion to be drawn at the country level; however, the results obtained in these experimental conditions highlighted:


**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, L.C.; validation, G.B. and Ł.S.; formal analysis, Ł.S., A.O. and V.M.T.L.; investigation, G.B., Ł.S., V.M.T.L., B.C., S.I.A.-E.F., F.V. and M.U.; resources, Ł.S., V.M.T.L. and L.C.; data curation, G.B. and Ł.S.; writing—original draft preparation, G.B.; writing—review and editing, Ł.S., V.M.T.L. and L.C.; visualization, G.B.; supervision, L.C. All authors have read and agree to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding. **Acknowledgments:** The authors wish to thank Antonio Moretti (National Research Council, ISPA-CNR, Bari, Italy) for providing the Italian strains from the ITEM collection, Vicente Sanchis (University of Lleida, Spain) for providing the strains from Spain, Souheib Oueslati (Université Libre de Tunis, Tunisia) for providing the strains from Tunisia and Younes Rezaee Danesh (Urmia University, Urmia, Iran) for providing the strains from Iran.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
