Screening of fermentative bacteria for their ability to bind and biotransform deoxynivalenol, zearalenone and fumonisins in an in vitro simulated corn silage model

Abstract

Fermentative bacteria can potentially be utilized to detoxify corn silage contaminated by Fusarium toxins. The objective of the present study was to test a large number of these bacteria for their ability to bind and/or biotransform deoxynivalenol (DON), zearalenone (ZEN) and fumonisins B₁ and B₂ (FB₁, FB₂) in conditions simulating corn silage. A total of 202 strains were screened in contaminated, pH 4, corn infusion inoculated with 5 × 10⁸ CFU ml^–1. Eight Lactobacilli and three Leuconostoc biotransformed ZEN into α-zearalenol, but no biotransformation was detected for DON and fumonisins. In contrast, most strains were capable of binding Fusarium toxins. The most effective genera were Streptococcus and Enterococcus, capable of binding up to 33, 49, 24 and 62% of DON, ZEN, FB₁ and FB₂, respectively. The ability to bind Fusarium toxins seems to be a common property of fermentative bacteria and could help to decrease their toxicity in animals.

Keywords:

• Fusarium
• mycotoxins
• fermentative bacteria
• probiotic
• binding
• biotransformation
• corn silage

Acknowledgements

V. Niderkorn is the recipient of a CIFRE Lallemand SAS research fellowship. The authors are thankful to the Research Unit for Food Process Engineering and Microbiology, INRA Thivernal-Grignon, France, the Research Laboratory for Animal Husbandry, INRA Corte, France, the Laboratory of Dynamics, Evolution and Expression of Genomes of Microorganisms, University Louis Pasteur/CNRS FRE 2326, Strasbourg, France, the Cheese Research Laboratory, INRA, Aurillac, France, and Lallemand SAS, Blagnac, France, for providing the strains of fermentative bacteria. They also thank Henri Durand, Frederique Chaucheyras-Durand and Corinne Pouyet for scientific assistance in this project.