Mycotoxins – prevention and decontamination by yeasts

Abstract

The application of yeasts has great potential in reducing the economic damage caused by toxigenic fungi in the agriculture. Some yeasts may act as biocontrol agents inhibiting the growth of filamentous fungi. These species may also gain importance in the preservation of agricultural products and in the reduction of their mycotoxin contamination, yet the extent of mycotoxin production in the presence of biocontrol agents is relatively less understood. The application of yeasts in various technological processes may have a direct inhibitory effect on the toxin production of certain molds, which is independent of their growth suppressing effect. Furthermore, several yeast species are capable of accumulating mycotoxins from agricultural products, thereby effectively decontaminating them. Probiotic yeasts or products containing yeast cell wall are also applied to counteract mycotoxicosis in livestock. Several yeast strains are also able to degrade toxins to less-toxic or even non-toxic substances. This intensively researched field would greatly benefit from a deeper knowledge on the genetic and molecular basis of toxin degradation. Moreover, yeasts and their biotechnologically important enzymes may exhibit sensitivity to certain mycotoxins, thereby mounting a considerable problem for the biotechnological industry. It is noted that yeasts are generally regarded as safe; however, there are reports of toxin degrading species that may cause human fungal infections. The aspects of yeast-mycotoxin relations with a brief consideration of strain improvement strategies and genetic modification for improved detoxifying properties and/or mycotoxin resistance are reviewed here.

Exposure, Occurrence, and Chemistry of Fumonisins and their Cryptic Derivatives

“…Other detoxification practices include gamma radiation and deamination using NaNO 2 . Apart from this, recent research has been investigating to what extent microorganisms, such as lactic acid bacteria and yeasts, may contribute to fumonisin decontamination (Niderkorn, Morgavi, Aboab, Lemaire, & Boudra, ; Pfliegler, Pusztahelyi, & Pócsi, ).…”

The efficacy of bacterial and yeasts strains and their combination to bind aflatoxin B1 and B2 in artificially contaminated infants food

“…Generally, there are two groups of probiotics: group one contains the lactic acid bacteria including: Streptococcus , Enterococcus , Lactobacillus , Leuconostoc , Pediococcus , and Bifidobacteria . The second group include the nonlactic acid bacteria contains: Bacillus and the yeast Saccharomyces (Armando, Dogi, & Rosa, ; Darsanaki et al, ; Pfliegler, Pusztahelyi, & Pocsi, ). The two groups of probiotics could be used to prevent different infections including diarrhea, urinary tract infections, cancer, immune disorders, lactose intolerance, and hyper cholesterolaemia, etc.…”

Establishing the impact of Fusarium culmorum infection and fungicide treatment on wheat malt quality

“…Although some researchers associate Fusarium infection with lower pH values for wort (Oliveira et al, 2012), this was not confirmed in this study, and no significant changes with the increasing degree of infection were detected. yeast can modify and transform mycotoxins from conjugated form to basic and vice versa (Berthiller et al, 2013;Inoue, Nagatomi, Uyama & Mochizuki, 2013;Meng-Reiterer et al, 2015;Nathanail et al, 2016;Pfliegler, Pusztahelyi & Pócsi, 2015). Since nowadays craft and home-brewing gains more and more popularity, and most of these breweries bypass filtration process, it is important to know the quality of raw material and transformation processes of mycotoxins in order to ensure the health safety of such beer.…”