Location: Mycotoxin Prevention and Applied Microbiology Research
Title: Ensuring food safety and security: Evaluating and utilizing plant/pest/pathogen phytochemical interactionsAuthor
HAY, WILLIAM | |
VAUGHAN, MARTHA | |
MCCORMICK, SUSAN | |
Behle, Robert | |
Berhow, Mark | |
Selling, Gordon | |
Hojilla-Evangelista, Milagros - Mila | |
TERESI, JENNIFER | |
BOWMAN, MICHAEL | |
Dunn, Robert |
Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only Publication Acceptance Date: 9/10/2020 Publication Date: 9/10/2020 Citation: Hay, W.T., Vaughan, M.M., McCormick, S.P., Behle, R.W., Berhow, M.A., Selling, G.W., Hojilla-Evangelista, M.P., Teresi, J.M., Bowman, M.J., Dunn, R.O. 2020. Ensuring food safety and security: Evaluating and utilizing plant/pest/pathogen phytochemical interactions [abstract]. Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: Ensuring food safety and security continues to be a perpetual challenge as up to 50% of all crop yields are lost to pests, plant diseases, and post-harvest damage. Fungal pathogens can not only decrease plant yields but some can produce harmful mycotoxins which endanger the final consumer. In this webinar we will present how a robust understanding of plant/pest/pathogen interactions can be utilized to better secure our agricultural industry. We will present how bioactive soybean flavonoids were found to improve the insecticidal activity of a baculovirus biopesticide against the lepidopteran pest Trichoplusia ni. Individually, three soybean flavonoid compounds, daidzein, genistein, and kaempferol, did not cause T ni. mortality, but the combination of the three flavonoids at leaf-level concentrations significantly increased baculovirus activity in diet incorporation assays. Furthermore, we will present how rising global carbon dioxide concentrations can change the nutritional content of wheat and increase the severity of Fusarium head blight, a devastating fungal disease of wheat. Certain strains of Fusarium graminearum increased production of the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol in response to changes in grain nutrient content. Future climate conditions may provide a pathogenic advantage on hosts with lower nutritional content, threatening global food safety and security. |