Identification and toxicological analysis of products of patulin degradation by Pichia caribbica

• Published in: Biological control 2018-08, Vol.123, p.127-136
• Main Authors: Zheng, Xiangfeng, Li, Yulin, Zhang, Hongyin, Apaliya, Maurice T., Zhang, Xiaoyun, Zhao, Lina, Jiang, Zhenhui, Yang, Qiya, Gu, Xiangyu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ascladiol; Degradation products; P. caribbica; Patulin; Toxicity
• ISSN: 1049-9644; 1090-2112
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biocontrol.2018.04.019

•Patulin was degraded by the P. caribbcia and it’s intracellular enzymes.•Patulin was transformed to ascladiol and then full degraded by P. caribbica.•The degradation products showed less or no toxicity. Increasing patulin contamination in fruits and fruit-derived products has become a major challenge for the food industry. Biological methods of patulin control have an important role to play owing to their safety and efficiency. In this study, we used the yeast Pichia caribbica to degrade patulin effectively. The intermediate degradation products of patulin by P. caribbica were identified as (E)- and (Z)-ascladiol using high performance liquid chromatography and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectroscopy. Only (E)-ascladiol was detected in the products of patulin degradation by intracellular enzymes. Toxic analyses on Escherichia coli Top10 cells, Arabidopsis thaliana, and human esophageal epithelial cells (Het-1a) showed that the intermediate degradation product ascladiol and the final degradation products were significantly less toxic and almost non-toxic compared to patulin (p  0.05) compared to patulin. Analysis of the characteristics and toxicity of the degradation products of patulin by P. caribbica demonstrate that ascladiol is less toxic and the final degradation products are not poisonous, therefore patulin detoxification strategies using P. caribbica are good approaches to limit the patulin risks.