An official website of the United States government.
<ol> <LI> Classify and optically sort maize grain infested with common species of kernel
rotting fungi and contaminated with mycotoxins. <LI>Identify and characterize gene
products from Fusarium verticillioides essential to fungal competitive success that
respond to chemicals from microbial constituents growing on or in corn. <LI>Discover and
characterize proteins from protective endophytes of maize and novel mycoparasitic
fungi that are capable of inhibiting growth of Aspergillus flavus and F.
verticillioides. <LI>Investigate protein expression in ripening maize grains challenged
by protective endophytes versus destructive pathogens. <LI>Examine the ecological role
of Acremonium zeae and other protective endophytes of maize in providing effective
defenses against mycotoxin producing kernel rotting fungi. <LI>Discover and characterize
novel antifungal metabolites produced by mycoparasites and fungal endophytes of maize
and other cereals with activity against Aspergillus and Fusarium.
Train neural networks to classify corn kernel disease symptom expression in
'resistant' vs. 'susceptible' white or yellow maize lines infected with by different
species of fungi; identify filters for detecting and rejecting mycotoxin contaminated
maize grains in commercially available high speed optical sorters; identify genes
that respond to maize or are required for growth on maize via analysis of the F.
verticillioides Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) database and F. verticillioides genes
that respond to competition via microarray analysis; obtain protein sequence
information on promising mycoparasite antifungal protein candidates via MALDI-TOF MS
analysis and use this information to identify and clone the corresponding genes;
characterize the impact of stress on plant disease resistance gene products (PDRGPs)
and F. verticillioides growth in developing maize ears; evaluate PDRGPs and F.
verticillioides ear rot reactions in agronomically characterized germplasm for use as
markers in ear rot resistance breeding programs; investigate the biocontrol potential
of Acremonium zeae in maize cultivation; evaluate maize endophyte metabolites for
their antifungal activities against Aspergillus flavus and Fusarium verticillioides
as well as other biological effects relevant to agriculture or medicine.