Novel Approaches Using Water Potential and Antagonistic Bacteria to Reduce Aspergillus flavus Population in Soil
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The peanut market in the United States is expected to reach $81 billion in 2025, and the state of Georgia is the main producer. Frequent contamination of peanuts with aflatoxins due to pre- and postharvest fungal infection, mainly with Aspergillus flavus, results in up to 30% rejection of shelled runner peanuts. Most studies to mitigate aflatoxins have been focused on peanut varieties and plant responses to environmental stress such as drought and temperature. Despite A. flavus being present in all U.S. peanut-growing soils, information on management of A. flavus populations in soil is scarce. In this study, we designed and implemented a controlled environment system to assess soil water potential (SWP) and soil amendment with antagonistic Bacillus subtilis for monitoring A. flavus populations in soil over time. We found that saturated soil (0 kPa) conditions led to decreased A. flavus titers compared with dryer conditions (30 to 1,000 kPa), whereas soil amendment with B. subtilis did not significantly affect A. flavus counts. This method will facilitate further research into strategies to reduce aflatoxigenic Aspergilli in soil and to potentially minimize preharvest aflatoxin accumulation. [Formula: see text] The author(s) have dedicated the work to the public domain under the Creative Commons CC0 “No Rights Reserved” license by waiving all of his or her rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law, 2026.
Source: PhytoFrontiers™
Language: English
Subfield: Plant Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDGs: Zero hunger, Life on land
Open Access status: diamond
Funder: Agricultural Research Service
OpenAlex ID: W7130992777