Mitigation of aflatoxin contamination of maize, groundnut, and sorghum by commercial biocontrol products in farmers' fields across Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Togo.

Background: Aflatoxin contamination by section Flavi fungi poses a significant threat to food security and public health in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Maize, groundnut, and sorghum are staple crops frequently contaminated with aflatoxins, sometimes at dangerous levels. Despite its detrimental effects, many farmers in SSA lack access to effective tools for mitigating aflatoxin contamination.

Characterization of adaptation mechanisms in sorghum using a multireference back-cross nested association mapping design and envirotyping.

Identifying the genetic factors impacting the adaptation of crops to environmental conditions is of key interest for conservation and selection purposes. It can be achieved using population genomics, and evolutionary or quantitative genetics. Here we present a sorghum multireference back-cross nested association mapping population composed of 3,901 lines produced by crossing 24 diverse parents to 3 elite parents from West and Central Africa-back-cross nested association mapping.

Aflatoxin Contamination of Maize, Groundnut, and Sorghum Grown in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger and Aflatoxin Exposure Assessment.

Aflatoxin contamination of staple crops by and closely related fungi is common across the Sahel region of Africa. Aflatoxins in maize, groundnut, and sorghum collected at harvest or from farmers' stores within two weeks of harvest from Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger were quantified. Thereafter, aflatoxin exposure values were assessed using per capita consumption rates of those crops.

Allelic variation for broad-spectrum resistance and susceptibility to bacterial pathogens identified in a rice MAGIC population.

Quantitative trait loci (QTL) that confer broad-spectrum resistance (BSR), or resistance that is effective against multiple and diverse plant pathogens, have been elusive targets of crop breeding programmes. Multiparent advanced generation intercross (MAGIC) populations, with their diverse genetic composition and high levels of recombination, are potential resources for the identification of QTL for BSR. In this study, a rice MAGIC population was used to map QTL conferring BSR to two major rice diseases, bacterial leaf streak (BLS) and bacterial blight (BB), caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pathovars (pv.