John Ingram Pitt (13 March 1937 – 23 March 2022) was an Australianmycologist, known as a leading expert on the role of fungi infood spoilage.[1][2][3] He gained an international reputation as a pioneering researcher on the ecology of spoilage molds in extreme environments.[4]
John Ingram Pitt was born and grew up on a small farm nearWamberal, New South Wales. After attendingGosford High School, he moved toSydney. In 1954, he became an employee of theAustralian Government'sCommonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). He began at CSIRO as a Technical Assistant Grade 1 (Junior), and was appointed a Chief Research Scientist in 1992 at the age of 55.[1] At the time of his death in 2022, he was the only CSIRO employee in its history to start at the lowest research employment grade and to go through all of the research grades up to the highest level.[5][6] He retired from CSIRO in 2002.[1]
After joiningCSIRO in 1954, he became a part-time student at theUniversity of New South Wales (UNSW), where he studiedfood technology. At UNSW he completed a seven-year course of study in eight years, followed by an M.Sc. qualifying course, and then a part-time M.Sc. program. His 1965 M.Sc. thesis is entitledMicrobiological Problems in Prune Preservation. On leave of absence from CSIRO, he became in 1965 a graduate student at theUniversity of California, Davis. He graduated there with a Ph.D. in 1968. His Ph.D. thesis (on the taxonomy ofMetschnikowia)[1] is entitled "The yeast genus Metschnikowia".[7] His thesis advisor was Martin Wesley Miller (1925–2005) in the UC Davis department offood science and technology.[8] After completing his Ph.D., Pitt spent a postdoctoral year at theUSDA'sNorthern Regional Research Laboratory (NRRL), where his supervisor was Clifford William Hesseltine (1917–1999).[1] At the USDA Pitt studiedPenicillium taxonomy and mycotoxin occurrences in food chains. When his postdoctoral fellowship ended, he returned to CSIRO[4] and collaborated with John H. B. Christian.[9][10]
Michael Vincent Tracey, who was the Chief of the CSIRO Division of Food Research from 1967 to 1978,[11] asked Pitt to systematically monitor themycotoxins threatening food safety.[1] Pitt used many fungal cultures obtained from NRRL during his postdoctoral fellowship to establish a yeast and mold collection at CSIRO, which by the year 2021 had about 6000 specimens. The fungal collection is officially known as the FRR culture collection and is of major importance in food and industrial applications. The FRR culture collection includesPenicillium andAspergillus species and their relatedteleomorphs. The collection also containsxerophilic fungi.[non-primary source needed][12] The collection is the basis for Pitt's bookThe Genus Penicillium and its teleomorphic States Eupenicillium and Talaromyces (Academic Press, 1980) and the bookFungi and Food Spoilage (Academic Press, 1985), coauthored by Ailsa Diane Hocking.[1] The book extensively describes fungal species that cause spoilage of fruits and vegetables.[13]
From the 1970s to 1990s, Pitt and Hocking did pioneer research on methods for isolating and identifying foodborne fungi, as well as their physiology and ecology. The main focus of the research was on xerophilic fungi. Pitt and Hocking did research for theAustralian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) on the fungi and mycotoxins that occur in food commodities from Indonesia and Southeast Asia. Pitt became a leading authority onmycotoxins. In the 1980s he investigated the role of the environment in problems withaflatoxin in peanuts grown in Australia. He pioneered biocontrol by competitive exclusion (replacing toxigenic fungal strains by non-toxigenic fungal strains) to control aflatoxin formation in peanuts and maize.[1] In 1986, Pitt and three collaborators discovered the speciesAspergillus pisci (first namedPolypaecilum pisce).[14]
Pitt was the author or coauthor of many papers related to the ecology of molds that cause food spoilage.[4] He, with his frequent collaborator Ailsa D. Hocking, researched ways to prevent food spoilage caused by the fungal generaAspergillus,Penicillium, andCladosporium, along with the yeast speciesZygosaccharomyces bailii[15][16][17][18][19]
Pitt was the author, coauthor, editor, or co-editor of 20 books and the author or coauthor of about 250 research papers or book chapters. In 2019 Pitt's Google Scholar h-index exceeded 60.[1]
Pitt, J.I.; Hocking, Ailsa D.; Glenn, Diane R. (1983). "An improved medium for the detection ofAspergillus flavus andA. parasiticus".Journal of Applied Bacteriology.54 (1):109–114.doi:10.1111/j.1365-2672.1983.tb01307.x.PMID6406419.
Klich, M.A.; Pitt, J.I. (1988). "Differentiation ofAspergillus flavus fromA. parasiticus and other closely related species".Transactions of the British Mycological Society.91:99–108.doi:10.1016/S0007-1536(88)80010-X.
Pitt, J.I.; Hocking, Ailsa D.; Bhudhasamai, Kanjana; Miscamble, Beverly F.; Wheeler, Kathryn A.; Tanboon-Ek, P. (1993). "The normal mycoflora of commodities from Thailand. 1. Nuts and oilseeds".International Journal of Food Microbiology.20 (4):211–226.doi:10.1016/0168-1605(93)90166-E.PMID8110599.
Pitt, J.I.; Hocking, Ailsa D.; Bhudhasamai, Kanjana; Miscamble, Beverly F.; Wheeler, Kathryn A.; Tanboon-Ek, P. (1994). "The normal mycoflora of commodities from Thailand. 2. Beans, rice, small grains and other commodities".International Journal of Food Microbiology.23 (1):35–53.doi:10.1016/0168-1605(94)90220-8.PMID7811571.
Pitt, J.I. (1994). "The current role ofAspergillus andPenicilliumin human and animal health".Medical Mycology.32:17–32.doi:10.1080/02681219480000701.
Frisvad, Jens C.; Thrane, Ulf; Samson, Robert A.; Pitt, John I. (2006). "Important mycotoxins and the fungi which produce them".Advances in Food Mycology. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology. Vol. 571. pp. 3–31.doi:10.1007/0-387-28391-9_1.ISBN978-0-387-28385-2.PMID16408591.
Leong, S.L.; Hocking, A.D.; Pitt, J.I.; Kazi, B.A.; Emmett, R.W.; Scott, E.S. (2006). "Australian research on ochratoxigenic fungi and ochratoxin A".International Journal of Food Microbiology.111:S10–S17.doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2006.02.005.PMID16713646.
Taniwaki, M.H.; Hocking, A.D.; Pitt, J.I.; Fleet, G.H. (2009). "Growth and mycotoxin production by food spoilage fungi under high carbon dioxide and low oxygen atmospheres".International Journal of Food Microbiology.132 (2–3):100–108.doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2009.04.005.PMID19428138.
Copetti, Marina V.; Pereira, José Luís; Iamanaka, Beatriz T.; Pitt, John I.; Taniwaki, Marta H. (2010). "Ochratoxigenic fungi and ochratoxin a in cocoa during farm processing".International Journal of Food Microbiology.143 (1–2):67–70.doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2010.07.031.PMID20709419.
Taniwaki, M.H.; Hocking, A.D.; Pitt, J.I.; Fleet, G.H. (2010). "Growth and mycotoxin production by fungi in atmospheres containing 80% carbon dioxide and 20% oxygen".International Journal of Food Microbiology.143 (3):218–225.doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2010.08.030.PMID20864200.
Calderari, Thaiane O.; Iamanaka, Beatriz T.; Frisvad, Jens C.; Pitt, John I.; Sartori, Daniele; Pereira, Jose Luiz; Fungaro, Maria Helena P.; Taniwaki, Marta H. (2013). "The biodiversity ofAspergillus sectionFlavi in brazil nuts: From rainforest to consumer".International Journal of Food Microbiology.160 (3):267–272.doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2012.10.018.PMID23290234.
^"John Pitt: An Oral History".YouTube. Dustin Howard. 27 July 2018; Interview with Dr Meredith Blackwell, Emeritus Professor at Louisiana State University, recorded at International Mycological Congress, San Juan, Puerto Rice in July 2018{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
^Pitt, J. I.; Miller, M. W. (1968). "Sporulation in Candida Pulcherrima, Candida Reukaufii and Chlamydozyma Species: Their Relationships with Metschnikowia".Mycologia.60 (3):663–685.doi:10.1080/00275514.1968.12018616.
