Preface

Aflatoxins are a group of polyketide mycotoxins that are produced during fungal develop‐ ment as secondary metabolites mainly by members of the fungal genus Aspergillus. Con‐ tamination of food, feed and agricultural commodities by aflatoxins impose an enormous economic concern, as these chemicals are highly carcinogenic, they can directly influence the structure of DNA, they can lead to fetal misdevelopment and miscarriages, and are known to suppress immune systems. In a global context, aflatoxin contamination is considered a perennial concern between the 35N and 35S latitude where developing countries are mainly situated. With expanding these boundaries, aflatoxins more and more become a problem in countries that previously did not have to worry about aflatoxin contamination.

Nowadays, aflatoxins research is one of the most exciting and rapidly developing areas of microbial toxins with applications in many disciplines from medicine to agriculture. Al‐ though aflatoxins have been a subject of several studies and reviews, but this monograph touches on fresh territory at the cutting edge of research into aflatoxins by a group of ex‐ perts in the field. Broadly divided into five sections and 17 chapters, this book highlights re‐ cent advances in aflatoxin research from epidemiology to diagnostic and control measures, biocontrol approaches, modern analytical techniques, economic concerns and underlying mechanisms of contamination processes. This book will update readers on several cuttingedge aspects of aflatoxins research bring together up-to-date information for mycologists, toxicologists, microbiologists, agriculture scientists, plant pathologists and pharmacologists, who may be interest to understanding of the impact, significance and recent advances with‐ in the field of aflatoxins with a focus on control strategies.

I would like to sincere gratitude all expert scientists who actively contributed in the book as chapter editors, Ms. Romana Vukelic and Ms. Iva Simcic; publishing process managers and InTech Open Access Publisher for providing the opportunity for publishing the book.

> **Mehdi Razzaghi-Abyaneh** Associate professor and head Department of Mycology Pasteur Institute of Iran Tehran, IRAN

**Section 1**

**Molecular Genetics and Management Strategies**

**Molecular Genetics and Management Strategies**

**Chapter 1**

**Development of Maize Host Resistance to**

Aflatoxins, the toxic and highly carcinogenic secondary metabolites of *Aspergillus flavus* and *A.parasiticus* are the most widely investigated of all mycotoxins because of their cen‐ tral role in establishing the significance of mycotoxins in animal diseases, and the regula‐ tion of their presence in food [1, 2]. Aflatoxins pose serious health hazards to humans and domestic animals, because they frequently contaminate agricultural commodities [3, 4]. Presently, numerous countries have established or proposed regulations for control‐ ling aflatoxins in food and feeds [5]; the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has limits of 20 ppb, total aflatoxins, on interstate commerce of food and feed, and 0.5 ppb of aflatoxin M1 on the sale of milk. However, many countries, especially in the develop‐ ing world, experience contamination of domestic-grown commodities at alarmingly great‐ er levels than does the U.S. Evidence of this was shown in a study that revealed a strong association between exposure to aflatoxin and both stunting (a reflection of chron‐ ic malnutrition) and being underweight (a reflection of acute malnutrition) in West Afri‐ can children [6]. Also, a 2004 outbreak of acute aflatoxicosis in Kenya, due to the

Recognition of the need to control aflatoxin contamination of food and feed grains has elicit‐ ed responses outlining various approaches from researchers to eliminate aflatoxins from maize and other susceptible crops. The approach to enhance host resistance through breed‐ ing gained renewed attention following the discovery of natural resistance to *A. flavus* infec‐ tion and aflatoxin production in Maize [8-12]. While several resistant maize genotypes have

> © 2013 Brown et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

© 2013 Brown et al.; licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

**Aflatoxigenic Fungi**

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/54654

Abebe Menkir

**1. Introduction**

Robert L. Brown, Deepak Bhatnagar,

Thomas E. Cleveland, Zhi-Yuan Chen and

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

ingestion of contaminated maize, resulted in 125 deaths [7].
