Temperature-dependent mycotoxins production investigation in Alternaria infected cherry by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography and Orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry

• Published in: International journal of food microbiology 2023-03, Vol.388, p.110070-110070, Article 110070
• Main Authors: Li, Yanshen, Shao, Ying, Zhu, Ya'ning, Chen, Anqi, Qu, Jingyao, Gao, Yonglin, Lu, Sunan, Luo, Pengjie, Mao, Xin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alternaria; Alternaria mycotoxins; Cherry; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Food Contamination - analysis; Lactones - analysis; Modified mycotoxins; Mycotoxins - analysis; Storage temperature; Tandem Mass Spectrometry - methods; Temperature; Tenuazonic Acid - analysis; Volcano plot
• ISSN: 0168-1605; 1879-3460
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2022.110070

For temperature-dependent Alternaria mycotoxins production analysis, cherry samples were inoculated with Alternaria sp. and incubated at two different temperatures (4 °C and 25 °C). Six Alternaria mycotoxins, including altenuene (ALT), alternariol monomethyl ether (AME), alternariol (AOH), altertoxin-I (ATX-I), tenuazonic acid (TeA), and tentoxin (TEN), in cherries were detected with integrated visible data-processing tools. Maximum concentration of these mycotoxins reached 71,862.2 μg/kg at 25 °C. Notably, considerable amount of TeA (290.4 μg/kg) was detected at 4 °C, which indicated that low temperature is not a safe storage condition for fruits. A total of 102 compounds were detected with a neutral loss of 162.0528 Da, and TeA-glucose was identified in this work. Based on MS/MS cosine similarity, products were verified and annotated with feature based molecular networking (FBMN) in global natural products social networking (GNPS). The results showed Alternaria mycotoxins in cherry samples were mainly demethylation, hydrogenation, and dehydration. This work revealed the production of Alternaria mycotoxins in cherries under different storage temperature, which will provide theoretical basis for the control of mycotoxin contamination in food commodities. •Production of Alternaria mycotoxin in infected cherry samples was first investigated in this work.•Glucose conjugation Alternaria mycotoxins (TeA-G) in cherry samples was reported for the first time.•Low temperature at 4 °C is not a safe storage condition for fruits.