Progress 03/01/14 to 09/30/17
Outputs
Target Audience:The graduate student, Megan Daniels, presented project findings on sea salt fungal communities and safety risks to members of three professional societies at annual conferences: the Mycological Society of America, the International Association for Food Protection, and the Mid-Atlantic States Annual Mycological Conference. Six scientific articles on food mycology and plant pathology were completed and have either been published or are accepted and awaiting publication. Two educational YouTube videos were developed: 1) Koch's Postulates as a method for determining the cause of a disease; and 2) Fungi that impact beer production in New York State. Middle School girls learned about plant disease at an Expanding Your Horizons workshop. The PI gave a keynote public talk on fungi to about 500 members of the public at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Spring Blooms Festival, focusing on fungi and their roles in gardens and our lives. She developed a demonstration lab station on food spoilage fungi and food security for her large Cornell class for non-science majors, Magical Mushrooms, which attracts over 300 students each Spring. Based on a strain isolated in New York, the first genome of Paecilomyces niveus was sequenced. annotated, and openly published online. Changes/Problems:Based on feedback on our original proposal, we shifted the focus of the project to highlight extremophile fungi in food safety, rather than environmental household molds. Our first study revealed that commercial sea salts commonly contain viable spores of a diversity of extremophiles, and may be a source of food contamination. Subsequently we targeted an extremophile mold that spoils foods, Paecilomyces niveus (=Byssochlamys nivea) which can survive high heat food processing, and can also introduce the mycotoxin patulin to processed foods. We discovered that this fungus causes a previously unknown apple disease, and spent the last year of the project characterizing it further, sequencing its genome as a basis for future funded research, and investigating its impacts on the New York apple industry in the orchard and in canned fruit products. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project helped support a graduate student, Megan Daniels, whose work bridged the fields of Food Science, Mycology, and Plant Pathology. She made important discoveries about extremophile fungi, and developed skills in science communication, teaching, and public outreach. She mentored a Summer undergraduate NSF-REU student in a study of interspecific competition and heat tolerance in extremophile fungi. The project facilitated the PI's transition from research in systematic mycology into the more applied fields of food mycology and plant pathology of crops important in New York State. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We published a diversity of scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals as the project ended. Our results have been presented at scientific conferences. We made public presentations on basic fungal biology and diversity, for example to a large audience at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden; to young women interested in STEM through Expanding Your Horizons; through our educational videos; and Cornell's undergraduate curriculum. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During this project we shed light on two major issues concerning extremophile molds and food safety. First, we demonstrated that commercially available sea salts typically contain a diversity of living, extremophile fungi. Our work was based on a collection of extremophilic and extremotolerant molds we captured from sea salts by using a filtration and culturing method we developed. Our new finding impacts food safety, in that salts have commonly been perceived as sterile ingredients. We showed that when sea salts are used as food ingredients, they can introduce molds into finished products, including species that make mycotoxins. In addition to generating a culture collection of sea salt fungi, we published a peer-reviewed article with our findings. Second, we discovered and described a new disease of apples in New York, caused by the extremophile fungus Paecilomyces niveus (=Byssochlamys nivea). We worked with Cornell Cooperative Extension agents and private crop consultants to detect and culture this fungus in New York soils, particularly in apple orchards. We used this collection of fungi to reveal a likely farm-to-food link between a fungus found in orchard soil (Paecilomyces niveus) and the spoilage of heat-processed apple products. We demonstrated the fungus produces patulin, a regulated mycotoxin, in apple fruits. We found that both fungal spores and patulin survive a typical apple juice concentrate hot process, presenting a risk of spoilage after processing, and also a risk of patulin exposure to consumers of spoiled juice. We also showed that strains of the fungus isolated from orchard soils had varying levels of fungicide resistance to several fungicides typically used in apple production, whereas strains from non-orchard soils mostly lacked fungicide resistance. We sequenced the first genome of Paecilomyces niveus, and published a peer-reviewed genome announcement including our initial characterization of its qualities. The annotated genome is now publicly available through the Joint Genome Institute of the US Dept. of Energy. Further work on genome structure is ongoing, and data from the genomes of 24 other New York strains sequenced at lower coverage will be used in future to shed light on the diversity of P. niveus in New York. We delivered outreach to middle school girls through the Expanding Your Horizons program, and incorporated information about food spoilage in the PI's Cornell teaching program. In lieu of blog articles, two educational YouTube videos were produced, explaining 1) how scientists identify the cause of a disease using Koch's postulates; and 2) how fungal pathogens impact beer production in New York.
Publications
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Progress 10/01/15 to 09/30/16
Outputs
Target Audience:The graduate student, Megan Daniels, presented project findings on sea salt fungal communities and safety risks to members of three professional societies at annual conferences: the Mycological Society of America, the International Association for Food Protection, and the Mid-Atlantic States Annual Mycological Conference. She also collaborated with peers to make an educational YouTube video that explains Koch's Postulates (a method for determining whether a microbe can cause disease). The video won a science communication award from the American Phytopathological Society. This work was related to her work on an extremophile mold that can attack apples. She incorporated it in a 2016 Expanding Your Horizons workshop for middle school girls, which introduced 25 young women with an interest in STEM to ideas about plant diseases and fungi. The PI gave a keynote public talk on fungi to about 500 members of the public at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Spring Blooms Festival, focusing on fungi and their roles in gardens and our lives. She developed a demonstration lab station on food spoilage fungi for her large Cornell class for non-science majors, Magical Mushrooms, which attracts over 300 students each Spring. Changes/Problems: Based on feedback on the original proposal, we shifted the focus of the project to highlight extremophile fungi in food safety, rather than environmental household molds. Our first study revealed that commercial sea salts commonly contain viable spores of a diversity of extremophiles, and may be a source of food contamination. Next we targeted an extremophile mold that spoils foods, Paecilomyces niveus (=Byssochlamys nivea) which can survive high heat food processing, and can also introduce the mycotoxin patulin to processed foods. We discovered that this fungus causes a previously unknown apple disease. We have set out to characterize it further, investigating its impacts on the New York apple industry in the orchard and in canned fruit products. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The graduate student, Megan Daniels, continued her thesis work, passing her A-exam, and networking with professional communities in Food Science, Mycology, and Plant Pathology. Her main focus shifted from extremophiles that present risks in food ingredients to extend on her discovery that an extremophile mold, previously known only as a food spoilage fungus, is also capable of causing an apple disease. She developed skills in science communication, teaching, and public outreach. She mentored one Summer undergraduate NSF-REU student in a study of interspecific competition and heat tolerance in extremophile fungi. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Our results have been presented at scientific conferences, and we are now working to publish several manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals. We made public presentations on basic fungal biology and diversity, and on fungi as plant pathogens, and we developed curriculum items on fungal food spoilage. We developed an educational video. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We were granted a one year extension to the project after the PI was assigned a large undergraduate class that required significant time investment to revise and launch. In the next and last year we will focus on Paecilomyces niveus (=Byssochlamys nivea), which we discovered to be both a notorious spoilage mold of apple products, and a novel pathogen of apple fruits. We will continue to characterize this fungus, examing its resistance to agricultural fungicides used in apple production, as well as its infection biology and incidence in New York State. We will work with food science collaborators to publish a review article on extremophile and extremotolerant fungi and spoilage of processed foods, focusing on the structures and mechanisms of fungi that allow them to survive processing that kills most other microbes. We will sequence the first genome of Paecilomyces niveus and begin to characterize genes implicated in its pathogenicity and tolerance of extreme conditions.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
This year we concluded our research on living, extremophile fungi found in commerical sea salts, which can create food safety risks when sea salts are used as food ingredients. We finished identifying and then archived a collection of sea salt fungi, and submitted a manuscript on this topic for publication. We also continued work to gather and characterize extremotolerant fungi found in New York soils, particularly in apple orchards. We cooperated with Cornell Cooperative Extension agents and private crop consultants for this study. We used this new collection of fungi to confirm our hypothesis that there is a farm-to-food link between an extremophile apple disease fungus (Paecilomyces niveus) and the spoilage of heat-processed apples products. We demonstrated that the fungus can produce a regulated mycotoxin, patulin, in apple fruits. We delivered an outreach presentation to middle school girls through the Expanding Your Horizons program, and incorporated information about food spoilage in the PI's Cornell teaching program. In lieu of a blog article, a YouTube video was produced, which explains how we identify the cause of a disease using Koch's postulates -- the same method with which we proved that Paecilomyces niveus causes a novel apple disease.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Daniels, M.N. & Hodge, K.T. The Food Spoilage Implications and Origins of Fungi in Sea Salt. Poster presentation at the Annual Conference of the Mycological Society of America, Berkley, CA., August, 2016.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Daniels, M.N. & Hodge, K.T. Fungi in Sea Salts: Assessing Contaminants⿿ Origins and Implications for Food Spoilage. Poster presentation at the annual conference of the International Association of Food Protection, St. Lois, MO., July 2016.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Daniels, M.N. & Hodge, K.T. Living Fungi in Sea Salts: Their Implications in Food Spoilage. Oral Presentation at the Mid-Atlantic States Annual Mycological Conference, State College, PA., April, 2016.
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Progress 10/01/14 to 09/30/15
Outputs
Target Audience:The graduate student involved in the research presented findings on extremophile fungal communities found in sea salt to various audiences of peers. She also engaged a group of 24 teachers visiting Cornell via the Cornell Institute for Biology Teachers, and taught them methods for studying household fungi using microscopes and cultures. She visited a local high school and gave a short lecture in a science class of about 20 students about becoming a biologist who studies fungi, and about the path to graduate school. The PI presented a public outreach lecture entitled 'Moldy Oldies' for Ithaca's Science Cabaret series. About 81 members of the public attended the talk at a restaurant in downtown Ithaca, where they learned about the fungi that decay food. Changes/Problems:Based on feedback on the original proposal, we shifted the focus of the project to highlight extremophile fungi in food safety, rather than environmental household molds. Our first study revealed that commercial sea salts commonly contain viable spores of extremophiles, and may be a source of food contamination (this work is ready for publication). In the past year we targeted spoilage fungi in the genus Byssochlamys that are problems in food processing because they survive very high heat and may also introduce mycotoxin in to the final product. Few US studies have focused on these fungi, their variability, or their sources in spoiled foods. Our results will inform the development of schedule processes for heat-processed foods. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The graduate student is being trained in both mycology and food science. Today this is an unusual combination, because over the last few decades most food microbiology programs have focused on pathogenic bacteria in foods (such as Salmonella). Fungal spoilage of food is clearly an area of rising importance. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue to work with Byssochlamys during the next reporting period. In particular, we will investigate the link between environmental isolates and those recovered from spoiled commercial products. We will characterize diversity in thermal tolerance, and use this information to devise more rigorous food processing schedules. We will explore the routes by which extremophiles enter food products. Our preliminary data indicate that Byssochlamys species can infect apples, which has not previously been reported. We will evaluate infected apples as a source of contamination in processed apple products that become spoiled due to heat-tolerant molds. We will continue our public outreach efforts by writing two articles about extremophile fungi to be published on the Cornell Mushroom Blog, and we will develop our research findings for publication in scientific journals.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
This year we continued to build a collection of cultures of extremophile fungi. We shifted our focus from fungi found in food and food ingredients to target a particular hazard: a group of extremophile species in the genus Byssochlamys. These fungi include strains that are heat-tolerant as well as xerophilic (tolerant of dry environments). They cause particular problems in food spoilage because they survive heat-processing, and some can produce a federally regulated mycotoxin, patulin, an important food safety problem. We developed an isolation process to suppress "weed" fungi and enrich for Byssochlamys species in agricultural soil and samples from fruit storage facilities. We have added over 20 isolates to our collection (the biggest US collection of these fungi), plus a half dozen isolates from spoiled commercial products. The identities of the new isolates were confirmed by microscopy and DNA analysis. We will use this collection to 1) assess natural variability in thermal tolerance, 2) investigate the primary routes by which these fungi infest and spoil heat-packed foods.
Publications
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Progress 03/01/14 to 09/30/14
Outputs
Target Audience: One undergraduate student involved in the project received training on methods for working with extremophilic fungi, and participated actively in maintaining the project's collection of cultures. The graduate student involved in the research presented preliminary findings on extremophile fungi to an audience of about 25 peers. Changes/Problems: Based on feedback we received on the original proposal, we shifted the focus of the project to highlight extremophilic fungi in food safety, rather than environmental household molds. This shift led to our productive work on extremophiles in a common food ingredient - sea salt. Sea salt is currently experiencing a rise in popularity. Our results in year 1 demonstrate that it is not often sterile, and that it is a route by which potentially hazardous, living fungi may be introduced to foods. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? An undergraduate student was trained in laboratory techniques for working with fungi and maintaining a culture collection. A female graduate student participated in the project to isolate extremophile fungi. She developed scientific skills in isolating and characterizing fungal communities, and analyzing the results. She mentored a female undergraduate in biological research and presented her preliminary results to an audience of her peers. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We will submit our first study for publication in a scientific journal in the field of Food Science. We will continue to build our collection of fungal isolates from human environments, including food ingredients. We will begin to develop outreach materials on microfungi (including extremophiles) in human environments.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During the first reporting period, we built a culture collection of extremophile fungi and used molecular tools to characterize them. We began by surveying the communities of fungi present in commercially-available sea salt. Sea salt is a common food ingredient in both home and commercial kitchens. Although it is commonly perceived and sterile and safe, our research on seven different brands of sea salt shows that sea salts can contain significant populations of living fungus spores that have the potential to cause contamination of prepared foods. We developed a protocol to detect and isolate these fungi. Some of the 85 isolates we retrieved from salt are known producers of mycotoxins; two were potential human pathogens. We are currently completing the molecular characterization of the fungi by DNA barcoding, in which a distinctive portion of the genome was analyzed and compared to public databases for identification purposes. Preliminary results show that at least 22 distinct species have been recovered from sea salt, many for the first time ever. Results from these analyses are currently being prepared for publication.
Publications
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