Fig. 4

Aspergillus flavus infection and aflatoxin quantification in Enz transgenic maize. Freshly grown spore suspensions of A. flavus AF13 were injected into maize developing cobs and allowed to infect kernels. Shown A are two representative infection sites with husk intact (left) and husk removed (right) immediately prior to kernel harvest for aflatoxin quantification. Infected cobs were harvested at either 14- days or 30-days post-infection. Cobs had 4 infection sites each with up to 2 biological replicates for nulls and 4–5 biological replicates for each of the 3 transgenic lines (Enz7, Enz8, and Enz10). B Total aflatoxins were extracted from harvested kernels surrounding each infection site and quantified by thin layer chromatography followed by scanning densitometry. Shown for each sample is the average log ppb ± SE, nd denotes undetectable at a detection limit of 20 ppb. Averages of all three Enz transgenic lines were determined to be significantly different (denoted by *) from the nontransgenic null at both 14- and 30-day infection treatments as determined by student tests p < 0.05