Isolation and Mechanistic Investigation of the Efficient Zearalenone-Removing Strain Bacillus licheniformis YJ25

Zearalenone (ZEN), a non-steroidal estrogenic mycotoxin produced by <i>Fusarium graminearum</i> species, poses a significant threat to both human food safety and animal feed quality. In this study, we isolated a strain, designated as <i>Bacillus licheniformis</i> YJ25, from a contaminated moldy corn sample, demonstrating substantial effectiveness in removing ZEN. Our findings revealed that YJ25's ZEN removal occurs primarily through cell wall adsorption, with enzymatic degradation representing a potential mechanism. In practical applications, enzymatic degradation may yield metabolites with heightened toxicity. However, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis revealed that ZEN was not converted into α-/β-zearalenol (α-/β-ZEL) or α-/β-zearalanol (α-/β-ZAL) by YJ25, substantiating the safety profile of YJ25 in the removal of ZEN. Our mechanistic investigations revealed that the cell wall components peptidoglycan and teichoic acid serve as the primary binding sites for ZEN adsorption. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis identified O-H, C-H, C=O, and C-O as the principal functional groups participating in the cell wall adsorption process. These investigations establish a scientific foundation for the prospective application of this strain as an efficient biological detoxification agent in food and feed safety management systems.