Pummi Singh Email & Phone Number

St. Louis, Mo, Us

St. Louis, Mo, Us

St Louis, Missouri, United States

My current position investigates ochratoxin and aflatoxin contamination of pistachios and almonds in California. The specific project on ochratoxin contamination of pistachios focusses on the identification of etiologic agent/s, biotic and abiotic sources of contamination, and the efficacy of fungicides and biological control to reduce contamination in field. I am further working on evaluating the efficacy of the registered biopesticide AF36 Prevail to limit aflatoxin contamination of almonds in large commercial acreage (5000 acres) using microbiology, PCR and qPCR.

Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Area

My project at UIUC aimed at identification of genomic regions underlying host specificity in Setosphaeria turcia, a significant pathogen of maize and sorghum. I developed a fungal bi-parental population, phenotyped it on greenhouse plants, genotyped the population using whole genome skim sequencing and mapped regions associated with virulence and saprotrophic traits with R/QTL. I designed and executed greenhouse experiments for assessing pathogen virulence, fungal RNA isolation from diseased plant tissue and axenic cultures, and RNA sequencing for differential transcriptomics.

Tucson, Arizona Area

My doctoral dissertation aimed at the investigation of the prevalence of aflatoxin contamination in commercial dried red chilies. I optimized techniques on aflatoxin analysis of naturally contaminated chilies and infection of chilies by aflatoxin producing Aspergillus spp. I discovered the causal agent/s of contamination. I further identified non-aflatoxigenic Aspergillus flavus endemic to chilies and evaluated their potential for biological control of aflatoxin contamination in chilies. In a second section of my dissertation, I studied the diversity of highly aflatoxigenic S-morphology fungi within Aspergillus section Flavi in the U. S. using phylogenetics, aflatoxin assays and microsatellite analyses. This study led to the discovery of three novel Aspergillus spp. of significant concern in aflatoxin contamination of crops.

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Plant Pathology/Phytopathology

Master Of Science (Ms), Biochemistry

Bachelor Of Engineering (Be), Electronics And Instrumentation Engineering