The mycotoxin definition reconsidered towards fungal cyclic depsipeptides

ABSTRACT

Currently, next to the major classes, cyclic depsipeptides beauvericin and enniatins are also positioned as mycotoxins. However, as there are hundreds more fungal cyclic depsipeptides already identified, should these not be considered as mycotoxins as well? The current status of the mycotoxin definition revealed a lack of consistency, leading to confusion about what compounds should be called mycotoxins. Because this is of pivotal importance in risk assessment prioritization, a clear and quantitatively expressed mycotoxin definition is proposed, based on data of widely accepted mycotoxins. Finally, this definition is applied to a set of fungal cyclic depsipeptides, revealing that some of these should indeed be considered as mycotoxins.

KEYWORDS:

• Cyclic depsipeptides
• definition
• hazard
• mycotoxins
• risk
• toxicity

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Antoon Daneels for his assistance in the literature search.

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to thank the “Special Research Fund of Ghent University” (BOF 01D23812 to Lien Taevernier and BOF 11PDO148 to Leen De Vreese) for their financial funding and scientific interest.