BARD - biological detoxification of the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) to improve safety of animal feed and food

真菌毒素对动物和人类都有剧毒。它们在农业商品中广泛存在，使其控制成为一个具有全球重要性的问题。毛霉烯脱氧雪腐镰刀菌醇（DON, vomitoxin）是谷物中最常见的真菌毒素污染物之一，由镰刀菌属的成员产生。DON对消费者构成健康风险，并损害牲畜生产性能，因为它会导致拒食、恶心、呕吐、腹泻、溶血作用和细胞损伤。毛霉烯可以抵抗高温烹饪，也可以抵抗化学和物理破坏方法，因此生物解毒方法是最有希望的解决方案。小麦赤霉病菌的Tri101基因编码毛霉烯3- o -乙酰转移酶，该酶可将毛霉烯转化为毒性较低的中间体。以色列科学家（R. Shapira）从镰刀菌中分离出该基因，并将其转化为干酪乳杆菌的益生菌菌株。将过表达的转化子与毛霉烯T-2孵育，产生T-2的3- o -乙酰基衍生物，其对酵母细胞的毒性明显低于DON。周博士在AAFC （Guelph）的研究小组分离出一种可以有效解毒DON的鸡肠道细菌。在圭尔夫大学，我们开发了用抗F. graminearum基因改造玉米的方法。我们建议通过生产表达Tri101基因的转化植物和益生菌微生物，并将这些药物加入动物饲料中来解毒毛霉烯。预计该项目将为开发饲料和食品中真菌毒素的创新、高度特异性和安全的去污方法铺平道路，从而防止真菌毒素对加拿大和以色列公共卫生的负面影响。拟议的工作将结合以色列和加拿大的专门知识，从微生物中分离霉菌毒素解毒基因，在微生物和植物中表达解毒基因，并通过动物饲养研究评估解毒治疗的有效性。它提供了一个独特的机会，可以结合专业知识来解决具有全球影响的问题。

Mycotoxins are highly toxic to animals and humans. Their presence in agricultural commodities is widespread, making their control a problem of global importance. The trichothecene deoxynivalenol (DON, vomitoxin), one of the most common mycotoxin contaminants of grains, is produced by members of the Fusarium genus. DON poses a health risk to consumers and impairs livestock performance because it causes feed refusal, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hemolytic effects and cellular injury. Trichothecenes are resistant to high cooking temperatures, as well as to chemical and physical methods of destruction, leaving biological approaches to their detoxification as the most promising solution. The Tri101 gene from F. graminearum encodes trichothecene 3-O-acetyltransferase, which converts trichothecenes into less toxic intermediates. Israeli scientists (R. Shapira) isolated the gene from Fusarium and transformed it into a probiotic strain of Lactobacillus casei. Incubation of the over-expressing transformants with the trichothecene T-2 resulted in production of the 3-O-acetyl derivative of T-2, which is significantly less toxic to yeast cells than DON. Dr. Zhou's research team at AAFC (Guelph) isolated a chicken gut bacterium that can effectively detoxify DON. At the University of Guelph, we developed methods for transforming corn with genes for resistance to F. graminearum. We propose to detoxify trichothecenes by producing transformed plants and probiotic microorganisms expressing the Tri101 gene and incorporating these agents into feeds for animals. The project is expected to pave the way to the development of innovative, highly specific and safe decontamination methods for mycotoxins in feeds and food products, thus preventing the negative impact of mycotoxins on public health in Canada and Israel. The proposed work would combine expertise in Israel and Canada in isolating mycotoxin detoxifying genes from microorganisms, expressing the detoxifying genes in microbes and plants and evaluating the effectiveness of the detoxification treatments  with animal feeding studies. It represents a unique opportunity to combine expertise to address a problem that has global implications.