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Research Goals:
Aflatoxins are toxic chemicals that certain fungi produce during crop infection. Crops with high aflatoxin content have greatly reduced value. We seek methods to reduce aflatoxin contamination. Our research is directed at both the causative fungi and the contamination process. Aflatoxin producing fungi are contained within Aspergillus section Flavi. We use variability within and among fungal communities to provide insights into many aspects of the ecology and biology of these fungi. Aspects addressed include the etiology and epidemiology of contamination, as well as, adaptation, divergence, dispersal, pathogenicity, morphogenesis, and cellular regulation. We seek to understand forces that induce and maintain variability within fungal communities, as well as, forces that influence the composition of fungal communities. This knowledge is used to develop techniques to reduce the aflatoxin producing potential of fungal communities and thus the vulnerability of crops to aflatoxin contamination. A current major emphasis is a partnership with Arizona cotton producers and gins and the Arizona Cotton Research and Protection Council. This partnership seeks to reduce the risk of aflatoxin contamination by reducing the aflatoxin producing potential of fungi resident in agricultural fields through the application of atoxigenic strains of Aspergillus flavus. Other aspects of our work include characterization of factors that influence aflatoxin production, and identification of crop characteristics that dictate the level of susceptibility to contamination.
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United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service |
ARC is Housed at the University of Arizona, |
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Last Updated 01/23/2008, by Cory Runyon email:runyonc@ag.arizona.edu The University of Arizona, Department of Plant Sciences, Division of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, PO Box 210036, Tucson, AZ 85721 Tel: (520) 626-5704 Fax: (520) 626-5944 |
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