Microbial reduction of zearalenone by a new isolated Lysinibacillus sp. ZJ-2016-1

Zearalenone (ZEA) has a strong reproductive toxicity. Reducing and eliminating ZEA from food and feed is of great significance. The aim of the present study was to screen bacteria for reduction of ZEA. A pure culture of strain ZJ-2016-1, identified as Lysinibacillus sp. by 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis methods, was isolated from chicken large intestine digesta and showed to be effective in eliminating ZEA; 32 μg/ml of ZEA in Luria-Bertani medium was completely removed within 48 h by whole cells of ZJ-2016-1. Heating treatment significantly reduced the removal rate of ZEA from 95.8 to 10.4% in the culture supernatant, suggesting that the microbial reduction of ZEA was likely enzymatic. The optimal conditions for the microbial reduction of ZEA by ZJ-2016-1 included temperature of 37 °C and pH of 7.0. To sum up, these results indicated that the Lysinibacillus strain is a promising bacterium resource for reducing ZEA, and its genes and enzymes involved in microbial reduction of ZEA should be further explored.