Abstract：Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a secondary metabolite produced by filamentous fungi belonging to Aspergillus spp. and Penicillium spp. . OTA can contaminate cereals, grapes(Vitis vinifera), soybeans(Glycine max), coffee(Coffea arabica) and related products. Animal experiments indicate that OTA is nephrotoxic, hepatotoxic, teratogenic, carcinogenesis, teratogenicity and mutagenesis. It is essential to reduce or eliminate the OTA content in foods and their raw materials to the national food safety. In this study, one bacillus Sl-1, which could adsorb and degrade OTA in liquid media, was screened out from animal manure. Both viable and autoclaved (121 ℃, 20 min) cells of Sl-1 could bind OTA, moreover, at 6 μg/mL of OTA, autoclaved (121 ℃, 20 min) cells bound (80%) more OTA than that of viable cells (60%) by thin layer chromatography (TLC) after 24 h aerobic incubation. The cell-free supernatant of Sl-1 could degrade OTA, and at 6.2 μg/mL of OTA, the degradation rate was 98% by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) after 24 h aerobic incubation and no degradation products were produced. In the moldy maize, the degradation rate of Sl-1 was 35.0%. With 16S rRNA gene sequence, Sl-1 was identified as B. licheniformis. It is the first time to obtain a strain of B. licheniforms which can adsorb and degrade OTA, and this research provides a new material for OTA detoxification.
