Enzymatic Degradation of Aflatoxin Accumulation in Dry Maize Kernels as A Promising Post-Harvest Mitigation Strategy

Abstract

Background: Aflatoxin is one of the most problematic fungal-produced toxins as it is responsible for massive global agricultural losses and is deleterious to both human and animal health. Contamination of crops by certain strains of Aspergillus fungi accumulate aflatoxin in both post- and pre-harvest conditions. Methods: In this report, we tested the aflatoxin-degradation efficiency of an endogenously expressed enzyme in harvested maize kernels. In post-harvest conditions, equivalent loads of A. flavus were used to infect harvested maize kernels previously engineered to express an aflatoxin-degrading enzyme from the Honey mushroom fungus. Results: No measurable, or significantly reduced, levels of aflatoxin were detected in all the enzyme-expressing harvested kernels initially and then 3 days post –harvest the transgenic kernels amassed aflatoxin. Conclusions: This is the first report of an enzyme degradation of aflatoxin in a crop in harvested kernels. This demonstrates the potential of this strategy to aid in the mitigation of aflatoxin in post-harvest conditions.