Wasps to play role in food safety?

A team of researchers at the US Department of Agriculture have found a novel, and quite surprising, role for wasps. A group of scientists claim this week that parasitic wasps can be used to detect chemicals, such as those associated with foodborne toxins, and could prove useful in testing harvested peanuts and corn for the toxin-producing ones.

Joe Lewis and Jim Tumlinson, together with University of Georgia researcher Glen Rains, used a model system to demonstrate the detection of chemicals associated with aflatoxins, which are naturally occurring mycotoxins produced by certain types of mould, such as Aspergillus flavus​ and A. parasiticus​.

Some strains of these Aspergillus​ species produce aflatoxins and others do not. According to the ARS, current methods to test for aflatoxins are limited, time-consuming and expensive.

Wasps, the ARS​ researchers continue, can be trained to detect any chemical by using their natural instincts to find food by scent. Mimicking nature, scientists feed sugar water to wasps while exposing them to the chemical scent to be tracked. During this process, wasps learn to link this chemical scent to food. This mechanism is called 'typical associative learning.'

To test for chemicals, wasps are placed in a container with a small hole, and air is passed over the wasps. If the wasps detect the target chemical, they go into the hole hoping to find a food source associated with the chemical scent. When they move into the hole, they trip a buzzer that indicates aflatoxins are present.

Although certain airborne vapours are associated with aflatoxin, the specific chemicals are unknown. The research team's next step is to determine the particular chemical in aflatoxin that attracts the wasps. This will allow the development of a portable machine that acts as a flexible biosensor.