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Holisitic MPM
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Holistic Mycotoxin Prevention Research 

How MPM Scientists are tackling the problem from diverse angles

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Ensure Food Safety by Controlling Mycotoxin Contamination and Enhancing Crop Resistance

  • Forecasting: Impact of weather on crop susceptibility and Fusarium virulence.
  • Breeding: Identify germplasm for breeders to target resilient mycotoxin resistance and high grain quality traits.
  • Biocontrol: Manipulate microbial populations to control pathogen proliferation, disease outbreaks, and mycotoxin contamination.
  • Mitigate Post Harvest Mycotoxin Accumulation: Develop biofumigants to inhibit fungal growth and mycotoxin production during grain storage and barley malting.
  • Identify Pathogen Virulence Traits/Effectors: F. graminearum core/population-specific virulence traits.
  • Regulatory Metabolites: Manipulate Fusarium metabolites to reduce F. graminearum inoculum in the field.

Innovative Food and Feed Safety Research to Eliminate Mycotoxin Contamination in Corn and other Crops

  • Gene Editing: Kernel-specific expression of RNAi targeting the fumonisin biosynthetic gene FUM1.
  • Identify Host Resistance/Mycotoxin Regulation Traits: Corn zmCRR1 protein, papain-like cysteine proteases, oxylipins.
  • Define Diversity of Mycotoxin-producing Fusarium species: F. tricinctum species complex, F. proliferatum and F. verticillioides.
  • Genetically Engineered: Use of killer meiotic drive element Skto drive biased transmission of a gene that blocks fumonisin production.

Innovative Approaches to Monitor, Predict, and Reduce Fungal Toxins

  • Computational Toxicology: Develop AI models to assess health risks associated with regulated mycotoxins.
  • Remediation: Develop strategies to remove mycotoxins from commodities.
  • Detection: Develop tools to predict mycotoxin contamination in grain commodities using chemical fingerprinting techniques combined with machine learning. Develop tools to detect emerging toxins, their metabolites and masked forms.