METODOLOGÍA RÁPIDA PARA EVALUAR IN VITRO LA RESPUESTA DE GENOTIPOS DE MAÍZ A LA ACUMULACIÓN DE AFLATOXINAS

Abstract

methodology to evalute in vitro the response of corn genotypes to aflatoxins accumulation. Fitopatol. Venez. 19: 10-14. Maize (Zea mays) kernels resistance is the preeminent strategy to prevent Aspergillus flavus infection and aflatoxins accumulation. An in vitro rapid methodology to evaluate the response of corn genotypes to aflatoxins accumulation was developed. Aflatoxins were quantified directly by immunochemical method. In four experiments, kernels of two series of white maize cultivars (50 g/sample) were surface disinfected and moistured to 24%. Later were inoculated with 1 mL of A. flavus conidia suspension (106 conidia/mL) and were incubated during 12 d at 24 ± 2 °C. The Turén I (experiments 1,2) and Ospino IB (experiments 3,4) strains of A. flavus were used. The experiments were carried out under completely randomized design. The data was submitted to analysis of variance and mean separation test. Significant differences in the aflatoxins contents among cultivars (series 1) were found at experiments 1 and 2. The two more contaminated cultivars and the two less contaminated one were the same in the experiments 1 and 2. The cultivar Danac 2002 showed intermediate aflatoxins accumulation in both experiments. Non significant differences among cultivars (series 2) were found in the results of the experiments 3 and 4. The behavior of four cultivars was consistent between experiments but two cultivars presented erratic results. Therefore it was demonstrated the true possibility to use this methodology to evaluate the susceptibility of maize genotypes to aflatoxins accumulation. Additional key words: mycotoxins, Zea mays.