Detoxification of mycotoxin patulin by the yeast Rhodotorula mucilaginosa

Patulin is a kind of mycotoxin, which occurs in food industry frequently and constitutes serious threats to human health. In this work, a strain of yeast with patulin degradation was screened, and identified as Rhodotorula mucilaginosa (R. mucilaginosa JM19) by 26S rDNA D1/D2 region gene sequencing. Subsequently, the patulin detoxification process was analyzed by HPLC-UV. The results showed that patulin was degraded into desoxypatulinic acid by R. mucilaginosa JM19. In addition, patulin degrading capacity of R. mucilaginosa JM19 was strongly dependent on temperature, cell density and initial patulin concentration. Up to 90% of patulin was significantly reduced after 21 h in MES buffer at 35 °C when cell density of yeast was above 1 × 108 cells/L. The R. mucilaginosa JM19 is capable of detoxifying over 50% of initial patulin concentration at 100 μg/mL. The detoxification activity of R. mucilaginosa JM19 toward patulin would be a potential approach for the control of patulin contamination in food and raw materials.