Abstract：
Aspergillus flavus is a notorious fungus that contaminates food crops with toxic aflatoxins, posing a serious threat to human health and the agricultural economy. To overcome the inadequacy of traditional control methods and meet consumer preferences for natural-sources additives, there is an urgent demand for novel biocontrol agents that are safe and efficient. This study aims to investigate the antifungal properties of a novel antifungal agent derived from the biologically safe Lactiplantibacillus plantarum WYH. Firstly, antifungal peptides (AFPs) with a molecular weight of less than 3kD, exhibiting remarkable temperature stability and effectively retarding fungal growth in a dose-dependent manner specifically against A. flavus, were concentrated from the fermentation supernatant of L. plantarum WYH and were named as AFPs-WYH. Further analysis demonstrated that AFPs-WYH might exert antifungal effects through the induction of oxidative stress, disruption of mitochondrial function, alteration of membrane permeability, and cell apoptosis in A. flavus. To further validate our findings, a transcriptomics analysis was conducted on A. flavus treated with 2 and 5 mg/mL of AFPs-WYH, which elucidated the potential effect of AFPs-WYH administration on the regulation of genes involved in impairing fungal development and preventing aflatoxin biosynthesis pathways. Overall, AFPs-WYH reduced the A. flavus proliferation and affected the AFB1 biosynthesis, exhibiting a promising potential for food industry applications as a biopreservative and biocontrol agent.
摘要：
黄曲霉是一种臭名昭著的真菌，用有毒的黄曲霉毒素污染粮食作物，对人类健康和农业经济构成严重威胁。为了克服传统控制方法的不足，满足消费者对天然来源添加剂的偏好，迫切需要安全有效的新型生物防治剂。这项研究旨在研究源自生物安全的植物乳杆菌WYH的新型抗真菌剂的抗真菌特性。首先,抗真菌肽（AFPs）的分子量小于3kD，表现出显著的温度稳定性，并以剂量依赖的方式有效地阻止真菌生长，从植物乳杆菌WYH的发酵上清液中浓缩并命名为AFPs-WYH。进一步的分析表明，AFPs-WYH可能通过诱导氧化应激发挥抗真菌作用，线粒体功能的破坏，膜通透性的改变，黄曲霉的细胞凋亡。为了进一步验证我们的发现，用2和5mg/mL的AFPs-WYH处理的黄曲霉进行转录组学分析，阐明了AFPs-WYH给药对抑制真菌发育和阻止黄曲霉毒素生物合成途径的基因调控的潜在影响。总的来说,AFPs-WYH减少黄曲霉增殖，影响AFB1生物合成，作为生物防腐剂和生物防治剂，在食品工业中具有广阔的应用前景。
