A biotechnological approach may be the answer that researchers have been looking for, according to Dr. Nancy Keller, plant pathologist with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station.
Aflatoxin is a fungus that infects corn, cotton, peanuts and other crops.
About a third of the Texas corn crop was lost to it last year, Keller said. The next step is locating the genes that turn the fungus off, Keller said. She's already found a gene in soybeans that represses aflatoxin in lab studies. Now she'll take that gene and breed into aflatoxin-susceptible plants. If eaten in large doses, aflatoxin can cause liver cancer in humans and animals.