**2. Materials and Methods**

## *2.1. Fungal Strain and Culture Conditions*

The *Fusarium* strain A1021B was maintained on potato dextrose agar (PDA, HI-Media, Mumbai, India) at 4 ◦C, and subcultured bimonthly. For metabolomic investigation CDB and PDB (both from HI-Media) cultures were prepared in 250-mL flasks containing 100 mL of broth. Twelve flasks were prepared for each medium and inoculated with 10 plugs (5 mm diameter) from 6-day old PDA cultures. Six flasks were incubated at 25 ◦C in a growth chamber with 16:8 h photoperiod, while the remaining 6 were incubated at 25 ◦C in darkness. These batches were further divided into two groups (each including three replicates) which were grown for one or two weeks, respectively. Then fungal debris were filtered through three layers of cheesecloth, and the filtrates were stored at −20 ◦C.

Solid fermentation of strain A1021B was carried out on maize kernels (MK). After rinsing three times in sterile water, 30 g of kernels were placed in each of twelve 250-mL flasks and sterilized (121 ◦C, 20 min). Five milliliters of sterile water were added to each flask, that were subsequently inoculated as described for liquid cultures. Similarly, the flasks were grouped in 4 batches, each consisting of three replicates, and incubated at 25 ◦C as described above. After one or two weeks, a 10 g sample was taken from each MK flask and separately ground to be further processed.
