TY - JOUR A1 - Keller, Julia A1 - Borzekowski, Antje A1 - Haase, H. A1 - Menzel, R. A1 - Rueß, L. A1 - Koch, Matthias T1 - Toxicity assay for citrinin, zearalenone and zearalenone-14-sulfate using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as model organism N2 - To keep pace with the rising number of detected mycotoxins, there is a growing need for fast and reliable toxicity tests to assess the potential threat to food safety. Toxicity tests with the bacterial-feeding nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as model organism are well established. In this study the C. elegans wildtype strain N2 (var. Bristol) was used to investigate the toxic effects of the food-relevant mycotoxins citrinin (CIT) and zearalenone-14-sulfate (ZEA-14-S) and zearalenone (ZEA) on different life cycle parameters including reproduction, thermal and oxidative stress resistance and lifespan. The metabolization of the mycotoxins by the nematodes in vivo was investigated using HPLC-MS/MS. ZEA was metabolized in vivo to the reduced isomers α-zearalenol (α-ZEL) and β-ZEL. ZEA 14-S was reduced to α-/β-ZEL 14-sulfate and CIT was metabolized to mono-hydroxylated CIT. All mycotoxins tested led to a significant decrease in the number of nematode offspring produced. ZEA and CIT displayed negative effects on stress tolerance levels and for CIT an additional shortening of the mean lifespan was observed. In the case of ZEA-14-S, however, the mean lifespan was prolonged. The presented study shows the applicability of C. elegans for toxicity testing of emerging food mycotoxins for the purpose of assigning potential health threats. KW - Mycotoxins KW - Metabolization KW - Toxicity testing KW - Biotests PY - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-455772 VL - 10 IS - 7 SP - 284, 1 EP - 12 PB - MDPI AN - OPUS4-45577 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -