The impact of climate change has been identified as an emerging issue for food security and safety, and the increased incidence of mycotoxin contamination in maize over the last two decades is considered a potential emerging hazard. Disease control by chemical and agronomic approaches is often ineffective and increases the cost of production; for this reason the exploitation of genetic resistan...

Aflatoxin contamination of maize grain threatens human food and animal feed safety. Breeding for reduced grain aflatoxin accumulation is one of the best strategies presently available to lower grain aflatoxin accumulation. Previously identified sources of germplasm with reduced grain aflatoxin accumulation are excessively tall and late maturing. The objective of this research was to screen germ...

Stenocarpella maydis and Stenocarpella macrospora are the causal agents of ear rot in corn, which is one of the most destructive diseases in this crop worldwide. These fungi are important mycotoxin producers that cause different pathologies in farmed animals and represent an important risk for humans. In this work, 160 strains were isolated from soil of corn crops of which 10 showed antifungal ...

Mycotoxins in maize grain intended for ethanol production are enriched in co-product dried distiller's grains and solubles (DDGS) and may be detrimental to yeast in fermentation. This study was conducted to examine the magnitude of fumonisin enrichment in DDGS and to analyze the impacts of insect injury, Fusarium ear rot severity, and fumonisin contamination on final ethanol yield. Samples of n...

Fusarium ear rot is a common disease of maize that affects food and feed quality globally. Resistance to the disease is highly quantitative, and maize breeders have difficulty incorporating polygenic resistance alleles from unadapted donor sources into elite breeding populations without having a negative impact on agronomic performance. Identification of specific allele variants contributing to...

Fusarium verticillioides is the most common fungal pathogen associated with maize ear rot in Tanzania. In a two-year trial, we investigated the efficacy of crop protection (insecticide and/or fungicide) and fertilizer (nitrogen and/or phosphorus) treatments in reducing the occurrence of F. verticillioides and its mycotoxins in maize grown in Tanzania. Seasonal differences were seen to have a su...

Fusarium graminearum is the causal agent of Gibberella ear rot and produces trichothecene mycotoxins. Basic questions remain unanswered regarding the kernel stages associated with trichothecene biosynthesis and the kernel metabolites potentially involved in the regulation of trichothecene production in planta. In a two-year field study, F. graminearum growth, trichothecene accumulation, and phe...

For most companies, it is a reality to face uncertainties when conducting complex projects focused on the implementation of Information Systems (IS) and, as a consequence, costbenefit evaluation of this kind of projects has become a difficult task. In this context, Real Options Theory (ROT) has proved to be a viable alternative to provide methods to evaluate complex projects, not only in Inform...