In vitro and in vivo studies were conducted to evaluate the efficacy of a hydrated sodium calcium aluminosilicate (Improved Milbond-TX, IMTX) to alleviate the toxic effects of aflatoxin (AF) B1 in chicks. In vitro results indicated that IMTX was able to bind 100% of AFB1 at pH 3 to 9. In the in vivo study, five pen replicates of six chicks were assigned to each of four dietary treatments, which...

The genes involved in the biosynthesis of sterigmatocystin (ST), a toxic secondary metabolite produced by Aspergillus nidulans and an aflatoxin (AF) precursor in other Aspergillus spp., are clustered on chromosome IV of A. nidulans. The sterigmatocystin gene cluster (stc gene cluster) is regulated by the pathway-specific transcription factor aflR. The function of aflR appears to be conserved be...

Aflatoxins (AFs) represent one of the major food safety concerns worldwide. Agricultural commodities including cereals and their derived products, oilseeds, nuts, spices, milk products are highly susceptible to aflatoxin (AF) contamination that can occur pre-harvest, during harvest or post-harvest. Aflatoxicosis is a severe health syndrome associated with direct ingestion AFs be classified as a...

background: due to the high toxicity of aflatoxin and its effects on public health, determination of aflatoxin level in wheat flour samples in the golestan province, north of iran was investigated. to examine the effect of seasonal changes, summer and winter sampling was performed with standard sampling methods. methods: a total of 200 flour samples were collected from 25 factories. hplc method...

Aspergillus niger, a mold commonly associated with Aspergillus flavus in damaged corn, interferes with the production of aflatoxin when grown with A. flavus on autoclaved corn. The pH of corn-meal disks was adjusted using NaOH-HCl, citric acid-sodium citrate, or a water extract of A. niger fermented corn. Aflatoxin formation was completely inhibited below pH 2.8-3.0, irrespective of the system ...

In this study, we investigated the binding ability of Saccharomayces cerevisiae to aflatoxin in pistachio nuts. The obtained results indicate that S. cerevisiae has an aflatoxin surface binding ability of 40% and 70% (with initial aflatoxin concentrations of 10 and 20 ppb) in the exponential phase. Acid treatments increase this ability to approximately 60% and 73% for the two concentrations of ...

We have examined the time course and patterns of covalent aflatoxin B1:DNA adducts produced within the ribosomal RNA gene sequences isolated from the liver nuclear DNA of aflatoxin B1-treated animals. Liver nuclear DNA was initially enriched in ribosomal DNA by cesium salt density centrifugation, and incubated under alkaline conditions to stabilize bound aflatoxin B1-DNA moieties. Alkali-treate...

Aflatoxin contamination of maize grain threatens human food and animal feed safety. Breeding for reduced grain aflatoxin accumulation is one of the best strategies presently available to lower grain aflatoxin accumulation. Previously identified sources of germplasm with reduced grain aflatoxin accumulation are excessively tall and late maturing. The objective of this research was to screen germ...

Effective preharvest strategies to eliminate aflatoxin accumulation in crops are not presently available. The molecular biology of aflatoxin biosynthesis has been extensively studied, and genetic and molecular tools such as reporter gene systems for the measurement of fungal growth have been developed. A reporter construct containing the Aspergillus flavus beta-tubulin gene promoter fused to Es...

Zinc concentrations strongly influence aflatoxin accumulation in laboratory media and in food and feed crops. The presence of zinc stimulates aflatoxin production, and the absence of zinc impedes toxin production. Initial studies that suggested a link between zinc and aflatoxin biosynthesis were presented in the 1970s. In the present study, we utilized two zinc chelators, N,N,N',N'-tetrakis (2-...