Microbial degradation of aflatoxin B1: Current status and future advances

Abstract

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is a natural toxin produced by many food-contaminant fungi and is a threat to human and animal health. This review summarizes current knowledge of the different ways to limit AFB1 in the food chain. We start by introducing current data and reviews available on the prevention of AFB1 occurrence, on AFB1 non-biological decontamination and biological adsorption. We then focus on microbial AFB1-degradation. The latter has already been well studied using living organisms, supernatants or purified enzymes. This review compiles information on the variety of protocols and the efficacy of the different sub-kingdoms or classes of microorganisms or their enzymes. We pay particular attention to publications closest to in vivo applications of microbial AFB1-degradation. In addition, this review also provides a summary of the currently known microbial degradation metabolites of AFB1 and their levels of toxicity, and provides recommendations on the most promising techniques to pursue the aim of minimizing ABF1 in the food supply.

Lactic Acid Bacteria as Antifungal and Anti‐Mycotoxigenic Agents: A Comprehensive Review

“…Although biodegradation of toxins is a permanent solution, cell wall binding is still considered as advantageous over metabolic degradation of certain toxins because of the following reasons: biodegradation is not only a time-consuming process, but it may also convert some mycotoxins into even more harmful metabolites. For instance, AFB1 has been reported to be biotransformed into a harmful metabolite aflatoxicol (Verheecke, Liboz, & Mathieu, 2016). Similarly, ZEA has been reported to change into a ZEA derivative named α-zearalenol ( Figure 6), a compound which is three to four times more toxic than ZEA itself (Mirocha, Schauerhamer, Christensen, Niku-Paavola, & Nummi, 1979).…”

Isolation and screening of aflatoxin-detoxifying yeast and bacteria from ruminal fluids to reduce aflatoxin B1 contamination in dairy cattle feed

“…Its advantages over physical and chemical decontamination included minimal loss of product quality, safety, economic benefits and eco‐friendly nature (Mishra and Das ; Verheecke et al . ). Several bacteria, such as Flavobacterium aurantiacum, Corynebacterium rubrum , Bacillus sp., Rhodococcus erythropolis and Trametes versicolor have been reported to reduce the AF level in liquid medium (Alberts et al .…”

“…In dairy cattle, absorbed AFB 1 is Among them, biological decontamination of AFs has been increasing in importance and appears to be quite promising. Its advantages over physical and chemical decontamination included minimal loss of product quality, safety, economic benefits and eco-friendly nature (Mishra and Das 2003;Verheecke et al 2016). Several bacteria, such as Flavobacterium aurantiacum, Corynebacterium rubrum, Bacillus sp., Rhodococcus erythropolis and Trametes versicolor have been reported to reduce the AF level in liquid medium (Alberts et al 2006(Alberts et al , 2009Wu et al 2009).…”

Oxidase or peptidase? A computational insight into a putative aflatoxin oxidase from Armillariella tabescens

“…Physical methods of mycotoxin removal (ie, sorting, sieving, washing, etc) are not easily implemented at a commercial scale, while most chemical methods do not conform to FAO requirements . Current biodegradation methods show promising results, but the challenge of achieving AFB1 degradation in food matrices remains, calling for further research …”