Accumulation of gliotoxin, a cytotoxic mycotoxin from Aspergillus fumigatus, in blue mussel ( Mytilus edulis)

• Published in: Toxicon (Oxford) 2003-09, Vol.42 (3), p.297-300
• Main Authors: Grovel, Olivier, Pouchus, Yves François, Verbist, Jean-François
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accumulation; Animals; Aspergillus fumigatus; Aspergillus fumigatus - isolation & purification; Bacteriology; Biological and medical sciences; Bivalvia - chemistry; Bivalvia - metabolism; Environmental Exposure - analysis; Environmental Monitoring; Food Contamination; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Fungi; Geologic Sediments - microbiology; Gliotoxin; Gliotoxin - analysis; Gliotoxin - metabolism; Gliotoxin - pharmacokinetics; Marine fungi; Marine Toxins - analysis; Marine Toxins - pharmacokinetics; Microbiology; Mussel; Mytilus edulis; Pathogenicity, virulence, toxins, bacteriocins, pyrogens, host-bacteria relations, miscellaneous strains; Seafood; Seafood safety; Seawater; Water Pollutants - analysis
• ISSN: 0041-0101; 1879-3150
• DOI: 10.1016/S0041-0101(03)00146-6

A strain of Aspergillus fumigatus has been isolated from sediments of a mussel bed. When cultured in hyper saline conditions (with sea-water), it produces a cytotoxic and immunosuppressive toxin, gliotoxin, which is excreted in an exudate. In order to know if this toxin could represent a risk for shellfish consumers, an experiment of bioaccumulation of gliotoxin in mussel has been carried out. After 6 days of contamination, toxin was accumulated in the meat of the mussels, at a level up to 2.9 μg/mg of extract weight, with a mode of contamination different to the classical digestive process described for a majority of marine toxins, but similar to the contamination mode of domoic acid.