Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), is a type I carcinogen that is one of the strongest naturally occurring aflatoxins and can be injurious to humans and livestock upon ingestion, inhalation, or skin contact, with carcinogenic and mutagenic effects. It causes significant hazardous effects to the food- and animal-production industries. We found a bacterial strain, 3J2MO, that degraded AFB1 well, and here we tested and characterized its AFB1-degradation ability. The strain degraded about 93.82% of the AFB1 after incubation for 48 h in Luria-Bertani (LB) medium at 37 °C with a final concentration of 100 ppb and an inoculation quantity of 1 × 107 cfu/mL. High-performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection (HPLC-FLD) was used to determine AFB1 amounts. The maximum degradation rates were 89.23% at pH 8.5; 55.78% at an inoculation quantity of 1 × 108 cfu/mL; and 71.50 and 71.21% at 34 and 37 °C, respectively. Treatment with sucrose and soluble starch as carbon sources and beef extract and ammonium acetate as nitrogen sources stimulated the degradation rate. Mg2+ and Ca2+ ions were activators for AFB1 degradation; however, Mn2+, Fe3+, Zn2+, and Cu2+ were strong inhibitors. This bacterial strain has potential in bioremediation and the detoxification of aflatoxin contamination for biocontrol strategies in both agricultural products and food-industry matrices.
Keywords: Myroides odoratimimus strain 3J2MO; aflatoxins; biocontrol; contamination; degradation.