Population Subdivision and the Frequency of Aflatoxigenic Isolates in in the United States.

Consumption of food contaminated with aflatoxin, from crops infected by , is associated with acute toxicosis, cancer, and stunted growth. Although such contamination is more common in the lower latitudes of the United States, it is unclear whether this pattern is associated with differences in the relative frequencies of aflatoxigenic individuals of . To determine whether the frequency of the aflatoxin-producing ability of increases as latitude decreases, we sampled 281 isolates from field soils in two north-south transects in the United States and tested them for aflatoxin production.