Informative Essay On Corn Smut

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Recently, corn smut has emerged as a delicacy in dozens of countries across the world and has become a common ground for scientific research in vaccinations; however, its health benefits and risk factors have been debated for thousands of years (McMeekin). Huitlacoche, the common Mexican name for corn smut, has been utilized as a food source since the 1700s when the Aztecs embraced it as one of their most valued meals and the Europeans claimed it caused severe health complications such as extreme hair loss among men (McMeekin). Today, Mexicans can more than 100 tons of corn smut a year for consumption and the health risks have been evaluated extensively (Patarky). Corn smut is caused by a pathogen known as Ustilago Maydis and often leads …show more content…

Juarez-Montiel et al. (2015), genetically modified corn smut to express cholera toxin B subunit (CTB), a protein which would create an immune response to E.coli and V. cholera, bacterium which negatively affect intestinal functions when infection occurs. Promoters which have the ability to initiate the multiplication of DNA were used to replicate the CTB gene in order to create an excessive amount of CTB protein (Margarita). By doing this, the pathogen which causes corn smut to grow, U. maydis, could have enough CTB inserted into it for consumption as an oral vaccine (Margarita). Once the insertion was completed, the pathogen and CTB were introduced to maize in order to induce the production of corn smut laced with CTB protein (Margirita). Once the corn smut was grown, it was fed to two groups of twelve week-old female mice; within the experiment a control group was fed corn smut without the new protein infused in it in order to have a comparison of the effects of normal corn smut on mice Margarita). After twenty one days blood samples were collected to determine if anti-bodies for the bacterium had developed (Margarita). The mice were also infected with cholera, the infection related to V. cholera, and had their intestinal fluid accumulation measured after they were euthanized

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