Molds and Biopathogens Research

Introduction

Aflatoxin produced by the fungus Aspergillus flavus is considered to be toxic to livestock exposed to contaminated grain and to be a potent carcinogen correlated with liver cancer in humans. Mycotoxin detection procedures are time consuming, destructive, and costly. Therefore, the goal of the present project is to use non-invasive hyperspectral imaging techniques to detect and quantify mycotoxins produced by various molds on grains. In order to identify and quantify molds and toxins, it is important to identify spectral signatures of all the molds and toxins in question, as well as the grains with which they are associated. The Institute for Technology Development and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Southern Regional Research Center based in New Orleans, Louisiana are currently collaborating on the research project using hyperspectral imagery to detect pathogens such as mycotoxin producing molds and to identify aflatoxin contamination in grain products.

Project Description

Detection of Aspergillus flavus and its toxic metabolite, aflatoxin, is important in corn production. Traditionally, corn kernels were examined for evidence of bright greenish-yellow fluorescence (BGYF), indicative of the presence of A. flavus, when illuminated with a high-intensity ultra-violet light. The BGYF approach is time and labor intensive and somewhat inaccurate. With the development of imaging technology, new image sensors such as the VNIR-100E hyperspectral imaging system from Institute for Technology Development are available for high spectral and high spatial resolution spectral data acquisition. Cultures of mycotoxin producing (those of the most concern to the industry) and non-producing fungi will also be imaged and the spectral fingerprints will be collected to produce a "spectral library" of the different fungi. The main focuses of this research project are thus to produce spectral libraries for fungi of interest to the grain industry; determine spectral differences between different corn varieties, resistant and susceptible to mycotoxin contamination and infected and non-infected with mycotoxin producing fungi; find, identify, and quantify mycotoxins on grains, using a non-destructive hyperspectral imaging system; test system's effectiveness in laboratory and field situations.

Figure 1. Mold identification on corn.

Figure 2. Three-dimensional rendering of Aspergillus flavus colony using hyperspectral data.

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