Abstract
Food crops around the world are commonly contaminated with Aspergillus flavus, which can produce the carcinogenic mycotoxin aflatoxin B1 (AFB1). The objective of this study is to test an X-ray irradiation sterilization method for studying AFB1 in contaminated maize samples in the laboratory. Maize that had been naturally contaminated with 300 ppb AFB1 by the growth of aflatoxigenic A. flavus was ground and then irradiated at 0.0, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 kGy. A. flavus was quantified by dilution plating on potato dextrose agar (PDA) and modified Rose Bengal media (MDRB) for viability and qPCR for gene presence. AFB1 was quantified by HPLC and ELISA. A. flavus viability, but not gene copies, significantly decreased with increasing doses of radiation (PDA: p < 0.001; MDRB: p < 0.001; qPCR: p = 0.026). AFB1 concentration did not significantly change with increasing doses of radiation (HPLC: p = 0.153; ELISA: p = 0.567). Our results imply that X-ray irradiation is an effective means of reducing viable A. flavus without affecting AFB1 concentrations. Reducing the hazard of fungal spores and halting AFB1 production at the targeted dose are important steps to safely and reproducibly move forward research on the global mycotoxin challenge.
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Claims 3
Claim · model-written summary
A. flavus viability decreased significantly as irradiation dose increased.
- Treatment
- increasing doses of radiatione0
- Interactor
- A. flavus
Aspergillus flavuse0pathogen - Outcome
- A. flavus viabilitye0
- Direction
- decreasede0
Zea maysNot reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“A. flavus viability, but not gene copies, significantly decreased with increasing doses of radiation (PDA: p < 0.001; MDRB: p < 0.001; qPCR: p = 0.026).”
t0“Maize”
Claim · model-written summary
A. flavus gene copies did not decrease with increasing radiation doses.
- Treatment
- increasing doses of radiatione0
- Interactor
- A. flavusAspergillus flavuse0pathogen
- Outcome
- gene copiese0
- Direction
- no_changeinferrede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“A. flavus viability, but not gene copies, significantly decreased with increasing doses of radiation (PDA: p < 0.001; MDRB: p < 0.001; qPCR: p = 0.026).”
t0“Maize”
Claim · model-written summary
AFB1 concentration did not change significantly with increasing radiation doses.
- Treatment
- increasing doses of radiatione0
- Outcome
- AFB1 concentratione0
- Direction
- did not significantly changee0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“AFB1 concentration did not significantly change with increasing doses of radiation (HPLC: p = 0.153; ELISA: p = 0.567).”
t0“Maize”
The same questions in other papers
radiation · disease · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
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- positive
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See all 9 papers →radiation · Aspergillus flavus · Zea mays (maize)Results agree
1 paper in the same direction as this paper
- positive
Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.