Cummins to Give Seminar on Effect of Mold Mite and Fungus on Stored Maize

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Paige Cummins is a graduate student in professor Ashley Dowling's lab in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology.

The Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology is hosting seminar speaker Paige Cummins, a graduate student in Ashley Dowling's lab, today. The seminar is titled, "The Effect of Symbioses Between the Mold Mite Tyrophagus putrescentiae and Fungus Aspergillus flavus on their Respective Populations in Stored Maize."

The seminar takes place at 9 a.m. Thursday, July 20, via Zoom link:

Join Zoom meeting.

• Meeting ID: 862 6223 1709
• Passcode: email enpl@uark.edu

The seminar is open to everyone.

Cummins describes the research:

"Zea mays is the most commonly grown grain in the world being used for animal feed, human consumption and in the creation of other products such as ethanol and bioplastics. Contamination of stored maize with stored grain invaders can lead to loss of revenue, reduced food availability and potential health complications. Two such storage invaders; Mold mites (Acari: T. putrescentiae) and Aspergillus flavus can work as symbionts within the grain storage system. To determine the resulting population growth from this symbiosis, maize was inoculated with three treatments: A. flavus, T. putrescentiae, and both organisms together. Treated maize samples were kept under stable humidity and temperature conditions and sampled over a 42-day period. Population numbers of A. flavus and T. putrescentiae were determined through qPCR and counting software, respectively. In samples with combined mold and mites, overall population showed no significant difference overall but grew in interesting and correlating growth patterns."

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