Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Introduction: " Meeting called to order at 8:30 by Lisa Vaillancourt. " Address from David Jackson, NC 1183 administrator, via the Internet. Dr. Jackson indicated that the project needed to prepare an annual report. He encouraged members to increase collaboration, especially in applying for funding. Such efforts should be highlighted in the annual reports, even if unsuccessful. Station Reports: " The station reports were presented in the following order: Suzanne Hendrich (IA), John Leslie (KS), George Rottinghaus (MO), David Ledoux (MO), Charles Woloshuk (IN), Sladana Bec (KY). " Presentations were also given by Christopher Schardl, Padmaja Nagabhyru, Cynthia Gaskill, and Jim Strickland. Business Meeting: Lisa Vaillancourt called the business meeting to order at 4:00 PM. Dr. Vaillancourt also recorded the minutes for the meeting, and Charles Woloshuk agreed to organize the annual report. Officers were named for 2012, George Rottinghaus as Chair, Charles Woloshuk as vice Chair, and Lisa Vaillancourt as Secretary. The committee discussed possible ways to improve member participation in the annual meetings. The current funding situation has made it difficult for several members to attend. The on-line connections are difficult to set up at both the meeting site and at members office computers. Interactive participation via internet is nearly impossible at most venues. The committee decided to invite other interested scientist to participate on the project objectives or on the broader interests of the committee such as mycotoxins and food/feed safety. Participants agreed to send their suggestions of potential new members to the Chair, vice-Chair, or Secretary. For 2012 annual meeting, George Rottinghaus and David Ledoux will organize a symposium on mycotoxins to coincide with the American Organization of Analytical Chemists Midwest Section meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, from June 4-7, 2012. This would meet a milestone schedules for 2012. The venue and Chair for the 2013 meeting was discussed but not determined. It was agreed that secretary Lisa Vaillancourt would send an e-mail to project participants to ask for volunteers. Meeting was adjourned at 5:00 pm.

Accomplishments: Objective 1. Develop data for use in risk assessment of mycotoxins in human and animal health. Risk assessments and in vivo dosage studies require a sufficient supply of mycotoxin-contaminated material. The Fusarium/Poultry Research Laboratory (MO) continued to produce mycotoxins in culture (aflatoxin, ochratoxin A, zearalenone, moniliformin, and fumonisin) for animal feeding trials in their own laboratories as well as other research groups. Objective 2. Establish integrated strategies to manage and to reduce mycotoxin contamination in cereal grains and distillers grains. Progress was achieved in the area of intervention strategies. The Fusarium/Poultry Research Laboratory (MO) evaluated a number of proprietary adsorbents in vitro and in vivo for their efficacy to reduce poultry and swine mycotoxicoses. With assays that included microbiological, real-time PCR, real-time RT-PCR, gas chromatography last 2 days of germination and initial stages of kilning were found to be the peak stages for Fusarium infection, Tri5 gene production, Tri5 gene expression and deoxynivalenol production during malting of barley (ND). It was also shown that also found that the gaseous ozone significantly reduced Fusarium infection in germinated barley during malting. Two studies were conducted on the application of ozone to reduce mycotoxiigenic fungi (ND, IN). Gaseous ozone did not negatively influence any aspect of malt quality and may have subtle beneficial effects on diastatic power and ²-glucans. In a modified screw conveyor to treat grain with ozone in a continuous-flow system, ozone concentrations reached 47,800 ppm with an average retention time for a corn kernel moving through the system at 1.8 min. Under these conditions, Aspergillus flavus counts were reduced by 96% in a single pass through the screw conveyor. Objective 3: Define the regulation of mycotoxin biosynthesis and the molecular relationships among mycotoxigenic fungi. Progress was made towards understanding the molecular aspects of fumonisin production during colonization of host (PA, IN). A F. verticillioides mutant lacking the ability to form hyphal-fusions was non-pathogenic on maize ears, stalks and seedlings, had development growth defects, and produced significantly less mycotoxin than wild type. Strains defective in two genes, one encoding a NADPH oxidase and the other a regulator of NADPH oxidases, had significantly reduced pathogenicity and fumonisin production. It was also demonstrated that the F. verticillioides gene Fst1 encodes a member of a class of proteins that are structurally similar to sugar transporters but may have a regulatory function. Mutants lacking a functional Fst1 are less virulent, produce less fumonisin, and are more susceptible to reactive oxygen than the wild-type strain. A hexose kinase gene Hxk1 was found to function in fructose uptake, pathogenicity, fumonisin biosynthesis, and trehalose biosynthesis. Progress was also made toward understanding the relationship between sexual reproduction in Fusarium graminearum (Gibberella zeae) and pathogenicity and deoxynivalenal (DON) production (KY). Results indicated that sexual crosses occurring among strains with similar degrees of pathogenicity could produce progeny that are potentially more damaging with respect to pathogenicity and DON. While the ability to sexual cross is controlled in part by the MAT1 locus, Results indicated that deletion the two mating specificities MAT1-1-1, and MAT1-2-1, negatively affected aggressiveness of the pathogen on wheat and DON production in planta and in vitro. This was in contrast to deletion of the complete MAT1 locus, which had no effect on disease development or on mycotoxin production. In other studies (MI) the results suggest that genes involved in DON biosynthesis are transcribed for a longer time in infecting hyphae than previously realized. Also, resistant wheat cultivars can inhibit hyphal growth of F. graminearum and expression of the DON biosynthetic genes.

Anuradha Vegi, Paul Schwarz and Charlene Wolf-Hall. 2011. Quanitification of Tri5 gene, expression and deoxynivalenol production during the malting of barley. International Journal of Food Microbiology 150:150-156. Anuradha Vegi. 2011. Mycotoxic bioactives in cereals and cereal-based foods, p. 253-271. In: Fruit and Cereal Bioactives: Sources, Chemistry, and Application. Tokusoglu, O., and Hall, C., (Eds). CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, Boca Raton, FL. Baines, D., Erb, S., Lowe, R., Turkington, K., Sabau, E., Kuldau, G., Juba, J., and Roberts, R. A. 2011. Mouldy feed, mycotoxins and Shiga-toxin-producing Escherichia coli colonization in associated with Jejunal Hemorrhage Syndrome in beef cattle. BMC Veterinary Research 2011, 7:24. Dakovic A, Kragovic M, Rottinghaus GE, Sekulic Z, Milicevic S, Milonjic S, and Zaric S. Influence of natural zeolitic tuff and organozeolites surface charge on sorption of ionizable fumonisin B1. Colloids and surfaces B, Bioiterfaces, 76:272-278, 2010. Hallen-Adams, H., Wenner, N., Kuldau, G. and Trail, F. 2011. Deoxynivalenol gene expression during wheat kernel colonization by Fusarium graminearum. Phytopathology 101: 1091-1096. James B. Dodd, Anuradha Vegi, Ashwini Vashisht, Dennis Tobias, Paul Schwarz and Charlene Wolf-Hall. 2011. Effect of ozone treatment on the safety and quality of malting barley. Accepted (in press). Journal of Food Protection. Kim, H., Smith, J. E., Ridenour, J. B., Woloshuk, C. P., and Bluhm, H. B. 2011. HXK1 regulates carbon catabolism, sporulation, fumonisin B1 production, and pathogenesis in Fusarium verticillioides. Microbiology 157:2658-2669. McDonough, M.X., Campabadal, C.A., Mason, L.J., Maier, D.E., Denvir, A., Woloshuk, C. P. 2011. Ozone application in a modified screw conveyor to treat grain for insect pests, fungal contaminants, and mycotoxins. J. Stored Prod. Res. 47:249-254. McDonough, M.X., Mason, L.J., Woloshuk, C. P. 2011. Efficacy of high concentrations of ozone on adult maize weevil, rice weevil and all life stages of red flour beetle and Indianmeal moth. J. Stored Prod. Res. 47:306-310. Reese, B. N., Payne, G. A., Nielsen, D. M., and Woloshuk, C. P. 2011. Gene expression profile and response to maize kernels by Aspergillus flavus. Phytopathology 101:797-804. Simas MMS, Albuquerque R, Oliveira CA, Rottinghaus GE, and correa B. Influence of gamma radiation on productivity parameters of chicken fed mycotoxin-contaminated corn. Applied Radiation and Isotopes 68:1903-1908, 2010( Tessari ENC, Kobashigawa E, Cardoso ALSP, Ledoux DR, Rottinghaus GE, and Oliveira CAF. Effects of aflatoxin B1 and fumonisin B1 on blood biochemical parameters in broilers. Toxins 2, 1x mqanscripts;doi:10.3390toxins20x000x, 2010