U.S. flagAn official website of the United States government
                    Here's how you know **Official websites use .gov**
                            
                            A **.gov** website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
 **Secure .gov websites use HTTPS**
                            
                            A **lock** (                            
                              A locked padlock                                                      
                            
                            ) or **https://** means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Menu Agricultural Research Service
						
                    U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
 Pest Management and Biocontrol Research: Maricopa, AZ
 close



    Research

                    Research Projects
                                    Publications
                                    Collaborations
                                    News
                                    Software
                People

                    Staff Listing
                                    Careers


        


                    Research Units
                        Main Page - ALARC
                                    Plant Physiology and Genetics Unit
                                    Water Management and Conservation Unit
                                    Western Regional Biomass Research Center
                    About UsSearch small
                    Search
            
            ARS Home
                                About ARS
                                Contact Us




ARS Home Pacific West Area Maricopa, Arizona U.S. Arid Land Agricultural Research Center Pest Management and Biocontrol Research Research





- Mehl, Hillary
- Callicott, Kenneth
- 2021
- 2020
- 2019
- 2018
- 2017
- 2016
- Publications
- Food Safety, (Animal and Plant Products) (108)

Research Project: **Location:
                            Pest Management and Biocontrol Research** Project Number: 2020-42000-022-000-D
                        
                        Project Type: In-House Appropriated Start Date: May 26, 2016
                        
                        End Date: May 25, 2021 **Objective:**
                        
                        1. Optimize and expand use of biological control of aflatoxins based on atoxigenic strains of Aspergillus flavus in order to improve access, affordability, and area-wide management.
Subobjective 1.1. Evaluate area-wide influences where atoxigenic biopesticides are widely used and develop strategies to increase cost-savings and efficacy based on area-wide effects.
Subobjective 1.2. Evaluate the potential to adapt hydropriming from seed technology to use with atoxigenic strain products to increase atoxigenic strain release under low humidity.
Subobjective 1.3. Advance biological control products based on atoxigenic strains of A. flavus with commercial field testing.
Subobjective 1.4. Improve access to atoxigenic strain biopesticides by assisting stakeholders to reduce costs of manufacture and distribution and expand biopesticide products while engaging USEPA in dialogue on biocontrol regulatory issues and public sector roles.
2. Develop an understanding of the distribution of Aspergillus flavus genetic haplotypes and vegetative compatibility groups worldwide in order to improve selection of biological control agents.
Subobjective 2.1. Identify A. flavus endemic in and adapted to target agroecosystems.
Subobjective 2.2. Determine utility of SSRs in tracking mechanisms and histories of divergences within A. flavus.
Subobjective 2.3. Develop an SSR database to support global efforts to delineate distributions of A. flavus genotypes and relationships among strains under investigation in diverse locations.
3. Improve understanding of development, evolution, and stability of populations of Aspergillus flavus, including phenomena occurring both within and between VCGs, in order to inform to inform optimization of long-term beneficial effects of atoxigenic strain biocontrol.
Subobjective 3.1. Determine the nature of clonal evolution in A. flavus with genomic analyses.
Subobjective 3.2. Assess mutation rate in an A. flavus genome during asexual reproduction in controlled laboratory evolution studies. **Approach:**
                        
                        Biological control products, developed during previous projects, with atoxigenic strains of Aspergillus flavus as active ingredients have been successful at greatly reducing aflatoxin contamination of corn and peanut in commercial fields in the US and in thousands of farmer’s fields across Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Zambia, the Gambia, and Ghana. The current project seeks to improve biological control to increase both single-season and long-term aflatoxin management to provide a context for both efficient area-wide aflatoxin management and reductions in cost of biological control programs. Area-wide influences of current commercial practices utilizing atoxigenic strain biocontrol agents will be quantified with culture and DNA based techniques. Diversity among and distributions of naturally occurring atoxigenic strains of potential use in biological control products will be determined and atoxigenics will be selected and field tested for the next generation of aflatoxin prevention biocontrol products. Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) analyses will be expanded to allow better understanding of strain distribution and divergence. A worldwide SSR database for A. flavus will be developed to allow the global scientific community to identify genotypes reported in the literature and/or incorporated into biocontrol products under development around the world. Comparative genomic analysis will be performed to characterize adaptation, divergence, and the relative contributions of recombination and clonality to A. flavus community structure. The resulting information will provide improved cost effective tools for production of safe foods and feeds.


Return to top


Connect with ARS Sign up


ARS Home
                            USDA.gov
                            Plain Writing
                            Policies & Links
                            Civil Rights Statements
                            FOIA
                            Accessibility Statement
                            Privacy Policy
                            Non-Discrimination Statement
                            Quality of Information
                            USA.gov
                            WhiteHouse.gov