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<OL> <LI> Determine mechanisms of action of mycotoxins to develop functional biomarkers, to evaluate control/decontamination methods, and for hazard assessments.<LI> Determine if fungi or their metabolites modify the biological activity of other toxins and infectious agents. <LI> Determine effects of cooking/processing of Fusarium contaminated corn on the fate and distribution of mycotoxins in intermediate and final products to provide approaches for minimizing mycotoxin content of edible products.
Use cultured cell lines, primary cultures, tissue slices, plant models, and gene knockout mouse strains to determine specific molecular endpoints of fumonisin-induced disruption of sphingolipid biosynthesis. Determine effects of combinations of toxins or combinations of toxins and infectious agents in experimental models. Where appropriate, experiments will be designed from a mechanistic standpoint,will be conducted only with combinations of toxins that are known to co-occur, and will focus on dose levels that reflect real world situations.Fumonisins and fumonisin derivatives in intermediate and final food products produced under authentic conditions will be measured. The effects of processing on toxicity will be evaluated using appropriate in vivo and in vitro experiments.