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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Peoria, Illinois » National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research » Mycotoxin Prevention and Applied Microbiology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #342736
Research Project: Novel Methods for Controlling Trichothecene Contamination of Grain and Improving the Climate Resilience of Food Safety and Security Programs

Location: Mycotoxin Prevention and Applied Microbiology Research

Title: The effects of elevated CO2 on cereal crop natural defenses and the potential implications for mycotoxin risk

Author
item Vaughan, Martha
item McCormick, Susan

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/23/2017
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Wheat and corn are an essential part of the world’s grain supply, but climate change has the potential to increase grain susceptibility to toxin producing fungal pathogens. While rising atmospheric [CO2] is a driving force of climate change, our understanding of how elevated [CO2] will effect grain crop defenses against such pathogens remains limited. Here we report that growth at elevated [CO2] increased maize and wheat susceptibility to Fusarium verticillioides and Fusarium graminearum, respectively. Fumonisin contamination of corn was only greater in combination with drought, but deoxynivalenol contamination of wheat was significant under conditions of elevated [CO2] alone. Our findings suggest that elevated [CO2] reconfigures plant defense hormone signaling pathways leading to changes in natural defense responses of grain crops which ultimately impact disease development and mycotoxin contamination.