Insight into Genes Regulating Post-harvest Aflatoxin Contamination of Tetraploid Peanut from Transcriptional Profiling.
Post-harvest aflatoxin contamination is a challenging issue that affects peanut quality. Aflatoxin is produced by fungi belonging to the Aspergilli group, and is known as an acutely toxic, carcinogenic and immune-suppressing class of mycotoxins. Evidence for several host genetic factors that may impact aflatoxin contamination has been reported, e.g., genes for lipoxygenase (PnLOX1 and PnLOX2/PnLOX3 that […]
Aspergillus section Flavi and aflatoxins in dried figs and nuts in Algeria.
The presence of Aspergillus section Flavi and aflatoxin (AF) contamination was investigated in 112 samples of peanuts, almonds and dried figs collected in Algeria. The occurrence of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), B2 (AFB2), G1 (AFG1) and G2 (AFG2) in different commodities has been determined with a sensitive method based on high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with fluorescence […]
Multiple mycotoxin analysis in nut products: Occurrence and risk characterization.
Nuts consumption plays an important role in Mediterranean diet, being a good source of proteins, vitamins, minerals and unsaturated fatty acids. However, nuts can be also a source of harmful mycotoxins with negative impact on human health. In this work, the occurrence of 16 mycotoxins belonging to different chemical classes, was assessed in several nut […]
Peanuts, Aflatoxins and Undernutrition in Children in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Peanuts (Arachis hypogaea) is an important and affordable source of protein in most of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and a popular commodity and raw material for peanut butter, paste and cooking oil. It is a popular ingredient for foods used at the point of weaning infants from mother's milk. It is at this critical point that childhood undernutrition occurs […]
Suppression of aflatoxin production in Aspergillus species by selected peanut (Arachis hypogaea) stilbenoids.
Aspergillus flavus is a soil fungus that commonly invades peanut seeds and often produces the carcinogenic aflatoxins. Under favorable conditions, the fungus-challenged peanut plant produces and accumulates resveratrol and its prenylated derivatives in response to such invasion. These prenylated stilbenoids are considered peanut antifungal phytoalexins. However, the mechanism of peanut-fungus interaction has not been sufficiently studied. We used pure peanut stilbenoids, arachidin-1, arachidin-3, and […]
Peanuts that keep aflatoxin at bay: A threshold that matters.
Aflatoxin contamination in peanuts poses major challenges for vulnerable populations of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Developing peanut varieties to combat pre-harvest Aspergillus flavus infection and resulting aflatoxin contamination has thus far remained a major challenge, confounded by highly complex peanut-Aspergilli pathosystem. Our study reports achieving high level of resistance in peanut by over expressing […]
Kinetics of aflatoxin degradation during peanut roasting.
This study investigated aflatoxin degradation during peanut roasting. First, peanuts contaminated with three initial aflatoxin concentrations (35, 332 and 695μg/kg) were roasted at 180°C for up to 20min. The percentage of aflatoxin degradation after 20min were 55, 64 and 81% for peanuts contaminated with aflatoxin at 35, 332 and 695μg/kg, respectively. This difference was statistically […]
Occurrence, Toxicity, and Analysis of Major Mycotoxins in Food.
Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by certain filamentous fungi (molds). These low molecular weight compounds (usually less than 1000 Daltons) are naturally occurring and practically unavoidable. They can enter our food chain either directly from plant-based food components contaminated with mycotoxins or by indirect contamination from the growth of toxigenic fungi on food. Mycotoxins […]
Genotypic Regulation of Aflatoxin Accumulation but Not Aspergillus Fungal Growth upon Post-Harvest Infection of Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) Seeds.
Aflatoxin contamination is a major economic and food safety concern for the peanut industry that largely could be mitigated by genetic resistance. To screen peanut for aflatoxin resistance, ten genotypes were infected with a green fluorescent protein (GFP)-expressing Aspergillus flavus strain. Percentages of fungal infected area and fungal GFP signal intensity were documented by visual ratings every 8 h for 72 […]
Innovative technologies to manage aflatoxins in foods and feeds and the profitability of application–A review.
Aflatoxins are mainly produced by certain strains of Aspergillus flavus, which are found in diverse agricultural crops. In many lower-income countries, aflatoxins pose serious public health issues since the occurrence of these toxins can be considerably common and even extreme. Aflatoxins can negatively affect health of livestock and poultry due to contaminated feeds. Additionally, they […]