Mitigating aflatoxin contamination in groundnut through a combination of genetic resistance and post-harvest management practices

Authors: PANDEY, MANISH - International Crops Research Institute For Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) - India; KUMAR, RAKESH - International Crops Research Institute For Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) - India; PANDEY, ARUN - International Crops Research Institute For Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) - India; SONI, POOJA - International Crops Research Institute For Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) - India; GANGURDE, SUNIL - International Crops Research Institute For Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) - India; SUDINI, HARI - International Crops Research Institute For Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) - India; FOUNTAIN, JAKE - University Of Georgia; LIAO, BOSHOU - Oil Crops Research Institute - China; DESMAE, HAILE - International Crops Research Institute For The Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT); OKORI, PATRICK - International Crops Research Institute For The Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT); CHEN, XIAOPING - Guangdong Academy Of Agricultural Sciences; JIANG, HUIFANG - Oil Crops Research Institute - China; MENDU, VENUGOPAL - Texas Tech University; FALALOU, HAMIDOU - International Crops Research Institute For Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) - Nigeria; NJOROGE, SAMUEL - International Crops Research Institute For The Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT); MWOLOLO, JAMES - International Crops Research Institute For The Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT); Guo, Baozhu; ZHUANG, WEIJIAN - Fujian Agriculture And Forest University; WANG, XINGJUN - Shandong Academy Of Agricultural Sciences; LIANG, XUANQIANG - Guangdong Academy Of Agricultural Sciences; VARSHNEY, RAJEEV - International Crops Research Institute For Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) - India

Submitted to: Toxins
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/28/2019
Publication Date: 6/3/2019
Citation: Pandey, M.K., Kumar, R., Pandey, A.K., Soni, P., Gangurde, S.S., Sudini, H.K., Fountain, J.C., Liao, B., Desmae, H., Okori, P., Chen, X., Jiang, H., Mendu, V., Falalou, H., Njoroge, S., Mwololo, J., Guo, B., Zhuang, W., Wang, X., Liang, X., Varshney, R.K. 2019. Mitigating aflatoxin contamination in groundnut through a combination of genetic resistance and post-harvest management practices. Toxins. 11:315. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins11060315.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins11060315

Interpretive Summary: Aflatoxin contamination of food and feed is a great safety concern, leading to stunted growth, liver damage and cancer. Unfortunately, the biology of the fungus as well as climate conditions pose serious challenge for field evaluation and genetic improvement through breeding. The goal is to improve the elite varieties with genetic resistance in order to reduce the contamination in farmers’ field. The modern “Omics” approaches including next-generation genomics technologies can provide improved and decisive information and genetic solution. The combination of genetic resistance to pre-harvest fungal infection and aflatoxin production together with post-harvest management may provide sustainable solution to mitigate aflatoxin contamination and improve food and feed safety to human and animals.

Technical Abstract: Aflatoxin contamination of food and feed is a great safety concern, such as leading to delayed development, stunted growth, liver damage, and liver cancer. Unfortunately, the biology of the fungus as well as climate conditions pose serious challenges in precise phenotyping, genetic prediction and genetic improvement. Equipping popular varieties with genetic resistance is key for effective reduction in infection in farmers’ field. The combination of genetic resistance for in-vitro seed colonization (IVSC), pre-harvest aflatoxin contamination (PAC), and aflatoxin production (AP) together with post-harvest management may provide sustainable solution to aflatoxin contamination. In this context, the modern “Omics” approaches including next-generation genomics technologies can provide improved and decisive information and genetic solution. An amicable solution to this problem would drastically uplift the consumption and trade across nations/regions, and most importantly, will avoid any possible health problems to the global consumers.