Aflatoxin

In this study, cholesterol biotransformation gene-set of human steroidogenic acute regulatory protein-related lipid transfer (START) domains were evaluated from high-throughput gene screening approaches. It was shown that STARD1, STARD3 and STARD4 proteins are better effective transporters of cholesterol than STARD5 and STARD6 domains. Docking studies show a strong agreement with gene ontology enrichment data. According to both complementary strategies, it was found that only STARD1, STARD3 and STARD4 are potentially involved in cholesterol biotransformation in mitochondria through Ω1-loop of C-terminal α4-helical domain...

Ensiled forage, particularly corn silage, is an important component of dairy cow diets worldwide. Forages can be contaminated with several mycotoxins in the field pre-harvest, during storage, or after ensiling during feed-out. Exposure to dietary mycotoxins adversely affects the performance and health of livestock and can compromise human health. Several studies and surveys indicate that ruminants are often exposed to mycotoxins such as aflatoxins, trichothecenes, ochratoxin A, fumonisins, zearalenone, and many other fungal secondary metabolites, via the silage they ingest...

Aspergillus flavus is an opportunistic pathogen and may produce aflatoxins in maize, one of the most important crops in Argentina. A promising strategy to reduce aflatoxin accumulation is the biological control based on competitive exclusion. In order to select potential biocontrol agents among isolates from the maize growing region in Argentina, a total of 512 A. flavus strains were isolated from maize kernels and soil samples. Thirty-six per cent of the isolates from maize kernels did not produce detectable levels of aflatoxins, while 73% of the isolates from soil were characterized as non-aflatoxin producers...

Corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie), commonly infests field corn, Zea mays (L.). The combination of corn plant biology, corn earworm behavior in corn ecosystems, and field corn value renders corn earworm management with foliar insecticides noneconomical. Corn technologies containing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) Berliner (Bacillales: Bacillaceae) were introduced that exhibit substantial efficacy against corn earworm and may reduce mycotoxin contamination in grain. The first generation Bt traits in field corn demonstrated limited activity on corn earworm feeding on grain...

The high acidity and complex components of Hibiscus sabdariffa have provided major challenges for sensitive determination of trace aflatoxins. In this study, sample pretreatment of H. sabdariffa was systematically developed for sensitive high performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection (HPLC-FLD) after ultrasonication-assisted extraction, immunoaffinity column (IAC) clean-up and on-line post-column photochemical derivatization (PCD). Aflatoxins B1 , B2 , G1 , G2 were extracted from samples by using methanol/water (70:30, v/v ) with the addition of NaCl...

Aflatoxin-lysine (AFB1 -lys) adduct levels in blood samples collected from 230 individuals living in three districts of Malawi (Kasungu, Mchinji, and Nkhotakota) and aflatoxin B1 (AFB1 ) levels in groundnut and maize samples collected from their respective homesteads were determined using indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (IC-ELISA) methods. AFB1 -lys adducts were detected in 67% of blood samples, with a mean concentration of 20.5 ± 23.4 pg/mg of albumin. AFB1 was detected in 91% of groundnut samples and in 70% of maize samples, with mean AFB1 levels of 52...

Traditional Chinese herbs are readily contaminated by mold that produced mycotoxins which are closly related to the herbs' external factors and external environments during the storage process. In this study, Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium was used as example, and the characteristics of traits, water content, active components (naringin, hesperidin, sinensetin, naringin, tangeretin) and the accumulation of aflatoxins (AFs) were selected as the evaluation indexes. Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium was stored under different environments and packaging materials for 12 months, and then the quality changes and mildew of Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium were examined...

Aspergillus flavus can colonize important food staples and produce aflatoxins, a group of toxic and carcinogenic secondary metabolites. Previous in silico analysis of the A. flavus genome revealed 56 gene clusters predicted to be involved in the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. A. flavus secondary metabolites produced during infection of maize seed are of particular interest, especially with respect to their roles in the biology of the fungus. A predicted nonribosomal peptide synthetase-like (NRPS-like) gene, designated asaC (AFLA_023020), present in the uncharacterized A...

A visual immunoaffinity test column (IATC) assay was developed to detect fumonisins in cereal samples for spot tests without the need for special instruments. The developed IATC assay had equivalent recognition capability for fumonisin B₁ (FB₁), fumonisin B₂ (FB₂), or fumonisin B₃ (FB₃), and exhibited no cross-reactivity with aflatoxin B₁, ochratoxin A, zearalenone, or the T-2 toxin. The sample pretreatment was accomplished more rapidly and with greater ease, the entire assay procedure was completed in approximately 10 min, including sample pretreatment and testing...

During February and August 2016 (winter and summer season), 192 samples of raw bulk tank milk have been collected from small dairy farms in five different regions of Kosova (Prishtina, Prizren, Peja, Mitrovica, and Gjilan). These samples were analyzed for aflatoxin M1 (AFM1 ) contamination level by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS). The limit of quantification for AFM1 was 0.02 μg/L and recovery at 0...

Several research studies reported that mycotoxins and other metabolites can be produced by fungi in certain matrices such as food. In recent years, attention has been drawn to the wide occurrence and identification of fungi in drinking water sources. Due to the large demand of water for drinking, watering, or food production purposes, it is imperative that further research is conducted to investigate if mycotoxins may be produced in water matrices. This paper describes the results obtained when a validated analytical method was applied to detect and quantify the presence of mycotoxins as a result of fungi inoculation and growth in untreated surface water...

It is known that the cytotoxic effects of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1 ) in endothelial cells of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) are associated with behavioral dysfunction. However, the effects of a diet contaminated with AFB1 on the behavior of silver catfish remain unknown. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate whether an AFB1 -contaminated diet (1177 ppb kg feed-1 ) impaired silver catfish behavior, as well as whether disruption of the BBB and alteration of neurotransmitters in brain synaptosomes are involved...

The emergence of super-toxigenic strains by recombination is a risk from an intensive use of intraspecific aflatoxin (AF) biocontrol agents (BCAs). Periodical alternation with interspecific-BCAs will be safer since they preclude recombination. We are developing an AF-biocontrol system using rice-associated Bacilli reported previously (RABs). More than 50% of RABs inhibited the growth of multiple A. flavus strains, with RAB4R being the most inhibitory and RAB1 among the least. The fungistatic activity of RAB4R is associated with the lysis of A...

Aim: The experiment was conducted to determine of levamisole (0.2 ml/kg-BW), Vitamin E (80 mg)+selenium (1.6 mg), and aflatoxin (B1) (positive control) compared with group without aflatoxin (negative control) on some liver enzymes (aspartate transaminase [AST] and alanine transaminase [ALT]), as well as to study the histopathological changes. Materials and Methods: The experiment included (200) 1-day-old broilers Ross 308 (Turkey source) mixed sexes. They were divided into four equal groups (50 chicks each group)...

Carbon catabolite repression (CCR) is a very important mechanism employed in the utilization of carbon as an energy source, required for the regulation of growth, development and secondary metabolite production in fungi. Despite the wide study of this mechanism in fungi, little is known about the major CCR gene creA in A. flavus. Hence, we report identification of A. flavus carbon catabolite repression gene creA, which is responsible for the repression of secondary carbon sources. Gene deletion and over-expression was employed to explicate the role of creA in the morphology, pathogenicity, and secondary metabolite production in A...

Meju, a cooked and fermented soy bean based food product, is used as a major ingredient in Korean traditional fermented foods such as Doenjang. We developed a novel type of Meju using single and combined extracts of Allium sativum (garlic clove), Nelumbo nucifera (lotus leaves), and Ginkgo biloba (ginkgo leaves) at 1% and 10% concentrations to improve the safety of Meju-based fermented products. Biogenic amines (BAs) in protein-rich fermented food products pose considerable toxical risks. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of adding selected plant extracts in Meju samples during fermentation...

Sensing the environmental signals, the canonical Gα-cAMP/PKA pathway modulates mycelial growth and development, and negatively regulates some secondary metabolism in filamentous fungi, e.g. aflatoxin in Aspergillus nidulans. Here we report the characterization of this signaling pathway in Chaetomium globosum, a widely spread fungus known for synthesizing abundant secondary metabolites, e.g. chaetoglobosin A (ChA). RNAi-mediated knockdown of a putative Gα-encoding gene gna-1, led to plural changes in phenotype, e...

BACKGROUND: Brazil produce approximately 63 million tons of corn kernels annually, which is commonly contaminated with fungi and mycotoxins. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of gaseous allyl isothiocyanate (AITC) to inhibit the growth of Aspergillus parasiticus and Fusarium verticillioides, and mycotoxin production (aflatoxins B1 , B2 , G1 and G2 , fumonisins B1 and B2 ) in corn during 180 d of storage. RESULTS: AITC at 50 μL L-1 resulted in a significant reduction of the fungal population (p <0...

Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1 ) is known to be a potent carcinogen and continues to pose a public health concern through the consumption of contaminated dairy foods. It is anticipated that consumption of lactic acid bacteria capable of binding aflatoxins can reduce the risk of AFM1 on human health to a certain extent. Seldom reports have hinted the possibility of using lactic acid bacteria for the biological detoxification of AFM1 . Hence, the present study was conducted to assess the ability of selected probiotic Lactobacillus strains for their AFM1 binding ability in PBS and to reduce its bioaccessibility in artificially contaminated skim milk using an in vitro digestion model...

Aflatoxin is a food contaminant and its exposure through the diet is frequent and ubiquitous. A long-term dietary aflatoxin exposure has been linked to the development of liver cancer in populations with high prevalence of aflatoxin contamination in foods. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify the association between urinary aflatoxin M₁ (AFM₁), a biomarker of aflatoxin exposure, with the dietary intake among adults in Hulu Langat district, Selangor, Malaysia. Certain food products have higher potential for aflatoxin contamination and these were listed in a Food Frequency Questionnaire, which was given to all study participants...