Food Hygiene and Safety, Meat and Meat Products Research Institute, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Universidad de Extremadura, Avenida de la Universidad s/n, 10003, Cáceres, Spain.
Instituto de Agroquímica y Tecnología de Alimentos (IATA-CSIC). C. Catedrático Agustín Escardino 7, Paterna, 46980, Valencia, Spain.
Int J Food Microbiol. 2022 Feb 16;363:109511. doi: 10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2021.109511. Epub 2021 Dec 29.
Apples are prone to be contaminated with Penicillium expansum, which produces the mycotoxin patulin, posing a risk for human health. Antifungal treatments are required to control this fungal pathogen, although consumers demand products free of synthetic additives. Then, the use of antifungal proteins produced by moulds represents a novel and promising strategy. Although its inhibitory effect on P. expansum has been reported, the impact of these proteins on patulin production has been scarcely studied, pointing to a possible patulin overproduction. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of the antifungal protein PgAFP on the proteome and patulin biosynthesis of P. expansum grown in apple-based agar, intending to decipher these effects without the apple in vivo physiological response to the fungal infection. PgAFP increased the production of patulin on three of the five P. expansum strains evaluated. The proteome of the PgAFP-treated P. expansum showed five proteins involved in patulin biosynthesis in higher abundance (fold change 2.8-9.8), as well as proteins related to pathogenicity and virulence that suggest lower ability to infect fruits. Additionally, several proteins associated with oxidative stress, such as glutathione peroxidase, redoxin, or heat shock proteins were found in higher abundance, pointing to a response against oxidative stress elicited by PgAFP. These results provide evidence to be cautious in applying this antifungal protein in apples, being of utmost relevance to provide knowledge about the global response of P. expansum against an antifungal protein with many shared characteristics with others. These findings significantly contribute to future studies of assessment and suitability of not only these antifungal proteins but also new antifungal compounds.
苹果容易受到扩展青霉的污染，后者会产生展青霉素这种真菌毒素，对人类健康构成威胁。需要使用抗真菌剂来控制这种真菌病原体，尽管消费者希望产品不含合成添加剂。因此，使用霉菌产生的抗真菌蛋白代表了一种新颖且有前途的策略。尽管已经报道了其对扩展青霉的抑制作用，但这些蛋白对展青霉素产生的影响却很少被研究，这表明可能会过度产生展青霉素。本工作的目的是评估真菌蛋白 PgAFP 对扩展青霉在基于苹果的琼脂中生长时的蛋白质组和展青霉素生物合成的影响，旨在在不考虑真菌感染对苹果体内生理反应的情况下，破译这些影响。在评估的五个扩展青霉菌株中的三个中，PgAFP 增加了展青霉素的产生。经 PgAFP 处理的扩展青霉的蛋白质组显示，有五个与展青霉素生物合成相关的蛋白丰度更高（倍数变化 2.8-9.8），以及与致病性和毒力相关的蛋白，这表明其感染水果的能力降低。此外，还发现了几种与氧化应激相关的蛋白，如谷胱甘肽过氧化物酶、redoxin 或热休克蛋白，其丰度更高，表明 PgAFP 引起了氧化应激反应。这些结果提供了谨慎应用这种抗真菌蛋白于苹果的证据，这对于了解扩展青霉对具有许多与其他蛋白相似特征的抗真菌蛋白的全球反应非常重要。这些发现为评估和确定这些抗真菌蛋白以及新的抗真菌化合物的适用性提供了重要依据。
