Behner Adam, Palicova Jana, Tobolkova Anna-Hirt, Prusova Nela, Stranska Milena
Department of Food Analysis and Nutrition, University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, Technicka 3, 166 28 Prague, Czech Republic.
Crop Research Institute in Prague, Drnovska 507/73, 161 00 Prague, Czech Republic.
Toxins (Basel). 2025 Jan 11;17(1):33. doi: 10.3390/toxins17010033.
fungi are widespread pathogens of food crops, primarily associated with the formation of mycotoxins. Therefore, effective mitigation strategies for these toxicogenic microorganisms are required. In this study, the potential of pulsed electric field (PEF) as an advanced technology of increasing use in the food processing industry was investigated to minimize the viability of pathogens and to characterize the PEF-induced changes at the metabolomic level. Spores of four species (, , , and ) were treated with PEF and cultured on potato dextrose agar (PDA) plates. The viability of the species was assessed by counting the colony-forming units, and changes in the mycotoxin content and metabolomic fingerprints were evaluated by using UHPLC-HRMS/MS instrumental analysis. For metabolomic data processing and compound identification, the MS-DIAL (v. 4.80)-MS-CleanR-MS-Finder (v. 3.52) software platform was used. As we found out, both fungal viability and the ability to produce mycotoxins significantly decreased after the PEF treatment for all of the species tested. The metabolomes of the treated and untreated fungi showed statistically significant differences, and PEF-associated biomarkers from the classes oxidized fatty acid derivatives, cyclic hexapeptides, macrolides, pyranocoumarins, carbazoles, and guanidines were identified.
真菌是粮食作物中广泛存在的病原体，主要与霉菌毒素的形成有关。因此，需要针对这些产毒微生物制定有效的缓解策略。在本研究中，对脉冲电场（PEF）作为食品加工业中越来越常用的先进技术的潜力进行了研究，以尽量降低病原体的活力，并在代谢组学水平上表征PEF诱导的变化。用PEF处理四种真菌（、、、和）的孢子，并在马铃薯葡萄糖琼脂（PDA）平板上培养。通过计数菌落形成单位评估这些真菌的活力，并使用超高效液相色谱-高分辨质谱/质谱仪器分析评估霉菌毒素含量和代谢组指纹图谱的变化。对于代谢组学数据处理和化合物鉴定，使用了MS-DIAL（v. 4.80）-MS-CleanR-MS-Finder（v. 3.52）软件平台。我们发现，对于所有测试的真菌种类，经PEF处理后，真菌活力和产生霉菌毒素的能力均显著降低。处理过的真菌和未处理的真菌的代谢组显示出统计学上的显著差异，并鉴定出了与PEF相关的生物标志物类别中的氧化脂肪酸衍生物、环状六肽、大环内酯类、吡喃香豆素、咔唑和胍类。
