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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Mississippi State, Mississippi » Crop Science Research Laboratory » Corn Host Plant Resistance Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #204069
Title: Diverse maize germplasm aflatoxin levels survey

Author
item BUSH, D - UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI
item MUSKET, T - UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI
item DAVIS, D - UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI
item Williams, William
item Windham, Gary
item Krakowsky, Matthew
item Brooks, Thomas
item DAVIS, G - UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/16/2006
Publication Date: 5/17/2007
Citation: Bush, D., Musket, T., Davis, D., Brooks, T.D., Williams, W.P., Windham, G.L., Krakowsky, M.D., Davis, G. 2007. Diverse maize germplasm aflatoxin levels survey [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2006 Multicrop Aflatoxin/Fumonisin Elimination & Fungal Genomics Workshop, October 16-18, 2006, Ft. Worth, Texas. p. 66.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Aflatoxin infects a wide range of hosts and causes devastating economic losses to producers. Aflatoxin is produced by soil-borne fungi, A. flavus, A. paraciticus, A. niger, and A. fumigatus. A number of environmental factors can increase accumulation such as water stress, high temperature, and insect damage. The FDA legislates the allowable toxin level to be 20 parts per billion (ppb) in grain for human consumption and 0.5 ppb in milk products. The optimum strategy against aflatoxin accumulation is the development of aflatoxin resistant inbreds. The objective of this experiment was to conduct a survey of aflatoxin levels in maize germplasm lines. A subset of 86 lines, from the Maize Diversity Project, was examined for aflatoxin accumulation. Two replications of each line were grown over two years in one location. To further examine this material, two additional locations were added to the experiment in year 2. Inoculation of A. flavus NRRL 3357 by the non-wounding silk channel technique was performed 19 days after pollination. Ears were harvested at maturity, shelled, bulked, and ground for aflatoxin analysis. Aflatoxin analysis was conducted using a competitive binding ELISA. Lines CML277 and M162W had consistently low aflatoxin accumulation while lines IL101 and F7 had high aflatoxin accumulation. Year, line, replication, line*rep, line*year, year*rep, line*year*rep, and year*rep*subsample were all highly significant variables in the analysis of variance for the combined years at the Missouri location. This germplasm survey will set the stage for associative analysis of candidate genes for aflatoxin reduction in maize.