%0 Journal Article
%T Aflatoxin Resistance in Maize: What Have We Learned Lately?
%A Marilyn L. Warburton
%A W. Paul Williams
%J Advances in Botany
%D 2014
%R 10.1155/2014/352831
%X Aflatoxin contamination of maize grain is a huge economic and health problem, causing death and increased disease burden in much of the developing world and income loss in the developed world. Despite the gravity of the problem, deployable solutions are still being sought. In the past 15 years, much progress has been made in creating resistant maize inbred lines; mapping of genetic factors associated with resistance; and identifying possible resistance mechanisms. This review highlights this progress, most of which has occurred since the last time a review was published on this topic. Many of the needs highlighted in the last reviews have been addressed, and several solutions, taken together, can now greatly reduce the aflatoxin problem in maize grain. Continued research will soon lead to further solutions, which promise to further reduce and even eliminate the problem completely. 1. Introduction to the Problem Although the detrimental health effects of aflatoxins and grain contamination have been known for over 50 years [1¨C5], a satisfactory solution has yet to be attained, from either a health or economic point of view. Since the publication of earlier reviews [6¨C11], encouraging advances have been achieved, but much remains to be done. The more recent reviews by Gorman and Kang [7]; Brown et al. [10]; and Moreno and Kang [11] highlighted the need for new sources of resistant germplasm, which have since been identified. QTL mapping was also called for, and several mapping studies and one meta-analysis have now presented the genetic architecture of aflatoxin resistance in maize in many of the most resistant lines. The suggestion of the use of nontoxigenic A. flavus in the review of Moreno and Kang [11] has been implemented with considerable success in some countries. Other suggestions as to specific genetic mechanisms of resistance, tools to study the problem including laboratory assays and simpler inoculation procedures, nixtamalization and chemical remediation treatments, have not yet contributed to appreciable progress outside of a limited scope. However, all information, taken together, and added to new proteomic, genomic, and genetic studies, is beginning to fill in the larger picture of this very complicated disease problem of maize and other oil-seed crops. 2. Aflatoxins Aflatoxins are hepatotoxic, carcinogenic secondary metabolites produced by some species of the fungal genus Aspergillus. Aflatoxin is one of the most toxic compounds found in nature, and it can be lethal to humans and other animals in amounts measured in parts per billion. In
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/abot/2014/352831/