Pre-harvest aflatoxin contamination (PAC) is a major problem facing peanut production worldwide. Produced by the ubiquitous soil fungus, Aspergillus flavus, aflatoxin is the most naturally occurring known carcinogen. The interaction between fungus and host resulting in PAC is complex, and breeding for PAC resistance has been slow. It has been shown that aflatoxin production can be induced by ap...

Dioctatin A (DotA), a metabolite of Streptomyces, is known to be an inhibitor of human dipeptidyl aminopeptidase II. Here, it was found that DotA strongly inhibited aflatoxin production by Aspergillus parasiticus, with an IC50 value of 4.0 microM. The mycelial growth of the fungus was not affected by the addition of DotA at a concentration of 50 microM, but inhibition of conidiation was observe...

Aflatoxin-producing Aspergillus species were isolated from soil samples from ten different regions within Thailand. Aspergillus flavus was present in all of the soil samples. Unlike previous studies, we found no A. parasiticus or A. flavus capable of both B- and G-type aflatoxin production in any of the samples. A. pseudotamarii, which had not been previously reported from Thailand, was found i...

BACKGROUND The effect of curcumin as a natural safe compound with different biological activities was examined on fungal growth and aflatoxin production in Aspergillus parasiticus NRRL 2999. METHODS The fungus was cultured in presence of serial two-fold concentrations of curcumin (125-2000 μg/ml) in yeast extract sucrose broth for 3 days at 28°C. Mycelia dry weight was determined as an index ...

ABSTRACT Aflatoxins are toxic, highly carcinogenic secondary metabolites of Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus, which when produced during fungal infection of a susceptible crop in the field or after harvest contaminate food and feed and threaten human and animal health. Although there are several management strategies that may reduce aflatoxin contamination of corn, the preeminent strategy ...

Among the enzymatic steps in the aflatoxin biosynthetic pathway, the conversion of O-methylsterigmatocystin to aflatoxin has been proposed to be catalyzed by an oxidoreductase. Transformants of Aspergillus flavus 649WAF2 containing a 3.3-kb genomic DNA fragment and the aflatoxin biosynthesis regulatory gene aflR converted exogenously supplied O-methylsterigmatocystin to aflatoxin B1. A gene, or...

This study focused on AflSkn7, which is a stress response regulator in the aflatoxin-producing Aspergillus flavus. The ΔAflSkn7 mutants exhibited partially defective conidial formation and a complete inability to generate sclerotia, indicating AflSkn7 affects A. flavus asexual and sexual development. The mutants tolerated osmotic stress but were partially susceptible to the effects of cell wall...

Aspergillus flavus (A. flavus) is a ubiquitous saprophytic and pathogenic fungus that produces the aflatoxin carcinogen, and A. flavus can have tremendous economic and health impacts worldwide. Increasing evidence demonstrates that lysine succinylation plays an important regulatory role in metabolic processes in both bacterial and human cells. However, little is known about the extent and funct...

Distribution of trace element levels in corn germ fractions from kernels naturally infected with Aspergillus flavus and from kernels free of the fungus demonstrated an association between the presence of A. flavus and higher levels of metals. A. flavus production of aflatoxin on various autoclaved corn media showed that ground, whole corn was an excellent substrate; similar high levels of toxin...

Polyclonal antibodies (PAb) were raised against an aflatoxigenic strain of Aspergillus parasiticus by using two different sources for antibody elicitation: (i) filtrate of a culture on which the fungus had been grown (ii) and two chimeric proteins, expressed in Escherichia coli as separate products, of the genes ver-1 and apa-2, which are involved in aflatoxin biosynthesis. The gene products we...