Peanut Accessions Resistant to Seed Infection by Aspergillus flavus¹

Abstract

Abstract Peanuts ( Arachis hypogaea L.) may become infected with strains of Aspergillus flavus Link ex Fr. that produce aflatoxin, a highly toxic substance when ingested by animals in food or feed products. Development of peanuts with resistance to penetration by the fungus would greatly alleviate the possibility of contamination by the health impairing substance. A new laboratory procedure with conditions conducive to optimum growth of Aspergillus flavus revealed that two peanut accessions were resistant to two toxin‐producing strains of the fungus. Seed with flesh seedcoat color from P.I. 337394 had an average of 5% seed infection for hand‐picked and hand‐shelled samples evaluated at optimum seed maturity in five separate evaluations during 4 years. Also, seed infection for samples of P.I. 337409 averaged 9% for similar evaluation. For two years, comparable checks of two susceptible accessions, P.I. 331326 and P.I. 343419, had an average of 92% and 91% seed infection, respectively, and ‘Argentine,’ ‘Florunner,’ and ‘Wilco 1’ had an average of 34%, 39% and 30%, respectively.