Mission:
The Mycotoxin Research Unit conducts fundamental and applied research on fungi that infect crop plants in the field and in storage producing toxins that affect the food supply and result in losses in crop quality and yield. The main focus area of this unit is on problems caused by fungi belonging to the genus Fusarium and their interactions with other toxin producing fungi. The major research emphasis of the management unit is the creation of knowledge to allow the development and implemention of strategies to minimize or eliminate mycotoxin occurrence or production in commodities. Determining the role of mycotoxins in plant disease, understanding of diversity and dissemination of toxigenic fungi in the field and the chemical nature of plant resistance to invasion, and establishing the molecular details of the biosynthesis of mycotoxins, along with their regulation, are important facets of developing strategies and management practices for mycotoxin control. The unit also develops and utilizes new technologies for the detection and analysis of mycotoxins in plants and in food and feed matrices.