Project Number: 6406-21000-011-07
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: May 01, 2005
End Date: Oct 31, 2009

Objective:
The objective of this cooperative research project is to identify potential sources of aflatoxin resistance in corn, to characterize these sources of resistance and their resistance factors, and to transfer resistance into elite inbred lines of corn through breeding.

Approach:
Inbred lines and their hybrids will be evaluated for aflatoxin resistance under drought stressed and non-stressed conditions. Plants will be inoculated with Aspergillus flavus either by injecting a conidial suspension into the silk channel of the ear or placing A. flavus-colonized corn kernels on the ground between treatment rows. Germplasm lines that exhibit resistance to aflatoxin accumulation will be crossed to create additional breeding populations and to combine different mechanisms of resistance.