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ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Food and Feed Safety Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #281824
Title: Utilizing fluorescence hyperspectral imaging to differentiate corn inoculated with toxigenic and atoxigenic fungal strains

Author
item YAO, HAIBO - Mississippi State University
item HRUSKA, ZUZANA - Mississippi State University
item KINCAID, RUSSELL - Mississippi State University
item Brown, Robert
item Bhatnagar, Deepak
item Cleveland, Thomas

Submitted to: Proceedings of SPIE
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/20/2012
Publication Date: 4/20/2012
Citation: Yao, H., Hruska, Z., Kincaid, R., Brown, R.L., Bhatnagar, D., Cleveland, T.E. 2012. Utilizing fluorescence hyperspectral imaging to differentiate corn inoculated with toxigenic and atoxigenic fungal strains. In: Proceedings of 2012 SPIE Conference, April 24-25, 2012, Baltimore, Maryland. p 8369-10.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Naturally occurring Aspergillus flavus strains can be either toxigenic or atoxigenic, indicating their ability to produce aflatoxin or not, under specific conditions. Corn contaminated with toxigenic strains of A. flavus can result in great losses to the agricultural industry and pose threats to public health. Past research showed that fluorescence hyperspectral imaging could be a potential tool for rapid and non-invasive detection of aflatoxin contaminated corn. The objective of the current study was to assess, with the use of a hyperspectral sensor, the difference in fluorescence emission between corn kernels inoculated with toxigenic and atoxigenic inoculums of A. flavus. Corn ears were inoculated with AF13, a toxigenic strain of A. flavus, and AF38, an atoxigenic strain of A. flavus, at dough stage of development and harvested 8 weeks after inoculation. After harvest, single corn kernels were divided into three groups prior to imaging: control, adjacent, and glowing. Both sides of the kernel, germplasm and endosperm, were imaged separately using a fluorescence hyperspectral imaging system. It was found that the classification accuracies of the three manually designated groups were not promising. However, the separation of corn kernels based on different fungal inoculums yielded better results. The best result was achieved with the germplasm side of the corn kernels. Results are expected to enhance the potential of fluorescence hyperspectral imaging for the detection of aflatoxin contaminated corn.