Potential of Burkholderia sp. IMCC1007 as a biodetoxification agent in mycotoxin biotransformation evaluated by mass spectrometry and phytotoxicity analysis

Microbial degradation is considered as an attractive method to eliminate exposure to mycotoxin that cause a serious threat in agriculture global industry and severe human health problems. Compared with other more prominent mycotoxin compounds, fusaric acid (FA) biodegradation has not been widely investigated. In this study, a fusaric acid-degrading bacterium Burkholderia sp. IMCC1007 was identified by 16 S rRNA gene sequencing and its detoxification characteristics were evaluated. This strain able to utilize FA as sole energy and carbon source with growth rate (µ) of 0.18 h− 1. Approximately 93% from the initial substrate FA concentration was almost degraded to the residual about 4.87 mg L− 1 after 12 h of incubation. The optimal degradation conditions for pH and temperature were recorded at 6.0 with 30 °C respectively. An efficient FA degradation of strain IMCC1007 suggested its potential significance to detoxification development. Accroding to LC-MS/Q-TOF analysis, FA was bio-transformed to 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (C7H6O3) and other possible metabolites. Plant treated with detoxified FA products exhibited reduction of wilting index, mitigating against FA phytoxicity effect on plant growth and photosynthesis activity. Phytotoxicity bioassay suggested that degradation product of IMCC1007 was not a potent harmful compound towards plants as compared to the parent compound, FA. As a conslusion, our study provides a new insight into the practical application of biodetoxifcation agent in controlling mycotoxin contamination.


Introduction
Mycotoxins are naturally occuring toxic compounds mainly produced by filamentous fungal species of Fusarium, Aspergillus and Penicillium. These mycotoxin compounds are carcinogenic, mutagenic, immunosuppresive and hepatotoxic effect (Shanakhat et al., 2018). Mycotoxins posses a serious threat in agriculture global industry as it costs Abd Rahman Jabir Mohd Din arahmanj@utm.my 1 inhibition and leakage of cell membrane integrity, increment of ROS content that resulting in pathological wilting (Dong et al. 2014;Jiao et al. 2014). Such systemic toxicity can lead to apoptosis, necrosis and even death. Moreover, FA was also reported to function as a quorum quencher against biocontrol agent, Pseudomonas chlororaphis and reduce the growth of bacteria through antibiosis mechanism (Bacon et al., 2004). Structurally, FA is an aromatic heteromonocyclic compound that carries an alkyl group at the 5-position of the pyridine ring and contains a carboxylic acid group (Hai et al. 2020). Owing to the butyl side chain, any host cell membranes can be impaired as a result of increased FA lipophilicity. The role of FA has undoubtedly been shown to contribute to the pathogenicity and virulence of Fusarium species in both plants and living host.
In the last few decades, several strategies have been reported to control mycotoxin contamination or eliminate the phytotoxin effect in feedstuffs including physical, chemical and biological detoxification approches (Zhu et al. 2017). Due to doubtly question regarding safety and cost implication held by physical and chemical methods, mycotoxin detoxification through biological approach has been extensively a preferable choice as it offers higher efficiency and more environmentally sustainable . Screening for FA-degrading bacteria by enrichment strategies is gaining an increasing attention. To date, microbial species of Stenotrophomonas, Pseudomonas, Trichoderma, Burkholderia and Paenibacillus have been reported to degrade FA effectively (Hu et al. 2012;Raza et al. 2015;Quecine et al. 2016;Crutcher et la., 2017a;Tian et al., 2020). Along that way, several metabolites including fusarinol, hydroxyfusaric acid (8-HOFA), fusarinolic acid and 4-butyl-2-carboxy-pyrimidine have been identified as result of biochemical transformation into less toxic by-product compounds (Fakhouri et al. 2003;Stipanovic et al. 2011;Crutcher et al. 2014;Liu et al. 2016). Although many FAdegrading microorganisms have been documented, there are a scarcity information in association of phytotoxicity assessment with respect to degradation products. To best to our knowledge, other diversity of bacterial species and their degradation products remain to be underexplored. Therefore, in this study, a novel FA-degrading strain, was isolated capable of degrading large amount of FA with the view of utilizing them as bioremediation agent in correspondence to promote green solution for mycotoxin control. Futhermore, any possibilities of byproducts produced in the FA degradation process was assessed. The toxicity effect of FA degradation products was examined for their phytotoxicity properties.

Enrichment and isolation of FA-degrading bacteria
The soil samples were collected, following the harvest of maize crops grown under organic management at research farm located on the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) (2°15.6406'N, 102° 73.2332'E;Pagoh, Malaysia). Fivegram samples were added to 45 mL of BS (Basal Salt) mediuum supplemented with 50 mg L − 1 of fusaric acid (FA) as a sole carbon source and agitated at 150 rpm at 30 °C. FA standard was purchased from Thermo Scientific (Loughborough, United Kingdom) and dissolved in 18% (v/v) methanol before adjusting the pH to 6.5 with 2 N NaOH to obtain a stock solution of 10,000 mg L − 1 . All chemicals used were of analytical grade, unless otherwise indicated. The composition of BS medium was as follows: 12.5 g L − 1 KH 2 PO 4 , 3.8 g L − 1 K 2 HPO 4 , 1.0 g L − 1 (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 , 0.1 g L − 1 MgSO 4 .7H 2 O with 0.5 mL of 10x trace element (TE) solution. The 10x TE solution consisted of 2.32 g L − 1 H 3 BO 3 , 1.74 g L − 1 ZnSO 4 .7H 2 O, 1.16 g L − 1 FeSO 4 (NH 4 ) 2 .SO 4 .6H 2 O, 0.96 g L − 1 CoSO4.7H2O, 0.22 g L − 1 (NH 4 ) 6 MO 7 O 24 .4H 2 O, 0.08 g L − 1 CuSO 4 .5H 2 O, 0.08 g L − 1 MnSO 4 .4H 2 O. After 7 days, 10% of of the culture were transferred to 45 mL fresh BS medium (supplemented with 50 mg L − 1 of FA) and incubated for a further 7 days. Enrichment was performed for a third time according to the same procedures. After several enrichments, the diluted cultures were spread on a BS agar plate supplied with fusaric acid as a sole carbon and energy source at 30 °C for 5 days. The resultant colonies with different colony morphology were repeatedly streaked on BS agar until purity was achieved. Each isolate was further streaked separately onto 1/10 TS agar plates for purification. The isolates were screened for their ability to utilize FA as a sole carbon source on the BS medium supplemented with 50 mg L − 1 of FA.

Identification by PCR amplification and DNA sequencing
Gram staining kit (HiMedia Laboratories, India) was used in accordance the manufacturer's protocol in addition to 16S rRNA sequence analysis. The genomic DNA of isolated strain were extracted using PrimeWay Genomic DNA Extraction Kit (Apical Scientific, Malaysia) in accordance the manufacturer's protocol after 24 h of cultivation in 1/10 TSB medium. Cells were then collected by centrifugation at 12,000 x g for 10 min. Extracted DNA was evaluated with 0.8% agarose gel electrophoresis to determine qualities and quantitites. The 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene from each isolated strains was amplifid by PCR using universal primers 27F, 5'-AGAGTTTGATCMTGGCTCAG -3' and 1492R, 5' -TACGGYTACCTTGTTACGACTT -3'. Amplication was performed in 25 µL reaction mixture using TC-1000G PCR thermal cycler (DLAB, China). A PCR purification kit (NucleoSpin gDNA Clean-Up, Macherey-Nagel, France) was used to purify the PCR product, which was subjected to DNA sequencing using BigDye Terminator v3.1 Cycle Sequencing Kit (Applied Biosystems, USA). Reference sequences retrieved from the GenBank database following BLAST searches were aligned with the 16 S rRNA gene sequence. Phylogenetic tree was constructed by using Neigbour-Joining methods in MEGA7.0 with the Kimura 2-parameter model. (Kumar et al. 2016). Bootstrap analysis with 1000 replicates was performed to assess the support of the clusters.

Growth rate and FA degradation activity of IMCC1007
Briefly, precultures of strain IMCC1007 were prepared by culturing cells in 250 mL flasks containing 50 mL TSB medium, agitated at 150 rpm 30 °C for overnight incubation. Then, precultures were inoculated into 50 mL BS medium supplemented with 50 mg L − 1 FA. The initial turbidity at 600 nm (OD600) was set at 0.01 and incubated at 30 °C for 10 h. The growth of strains was checked using UV-VIS spectrophotometer (Cary 60, Agilent, USA) at an optical density of 600 nm. Bacterial growth was monitored as increasing turbidity until the stationary phase. Samples were taken at regular intervals, from which residual FA was extracted. Control cultures were cultured in the BS medium without FA. The generation time was calculated based on the log 10 (OD 600 ) of the obtained greatest slope defined as the maximum growth rate (log 10 (OD 600 )h − 1 ).

Quantification of FA residual concentration
The residual concentration of FA were quantified using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) at 0, 3, 6, 9, 10 and 12 h. Briefly, the culture medium containing 50 mg L − 1 of FA after treated with strain IMCC1007 was filtered through a 0.22 μm syringe filter (Bioflow, Malaysia) after centrifugation at 12,000 rpm for 10 min. A culture filtrate was measured for FA concentration on a HPLC (LC1290 II, Agilent, USA) using C18 column (150 × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) equipped with a photodiode array detector. The HPLC was run with a mobile phase composed of methanol and water at a flow rate of 0.8 mL min − 1 . FA was detected with 268 nm excitation wavelength at a retention time of 8.1 min. FA residual concentration was calculated according to a standard curve constructed against different concentrations using commercial FA standard. Specifically, FA concentration were calculated with a calibration curve exhibiting an R 2 = 0.992: where X is the FA concentration, and Y is the FA peak area detected by HPLC.

Optimization of the degradation conditions
FA degradation efficiency were optimized, respectively by assessing of the degradation rates at different reaction conditions. Three key factors including incubation time (1, 3, 5, 7, 12 h), pH (5,6,7,8,9) and temperature (20 °C, 25 °C, 30 °C, 35 °C, 40 °C) affecting the FA degradation rate were selected. Medium without FA was used as negative control. The degradation tests were carried out with agitation at 150 rpm at 30 °C for 12 h, FA residues were analyzed using HPLC. Degradation rate (%) were quantified by measuring sample peak areas and comparing against those of standard solutions. The FA degradation rate as follows: where X 1 is the FA concentration in the negative control, X 2 is the FA concentration in the treated sample, and Y is the degradation rate (%).

FA residues analysis and degradation product identification
The FA degradation product residues identification after treatment with strain IMCC1007 were analyzed by HPLC apparatus (1290 series, Agilent, USA) connected to an electrospray ionization (ESI) quadruple mass spectrometry (IM/QTOF) (6560 Ion Mobility, Agilent, USA). Culture of FA degradation products were then filtered, extracted thrice with equal volume of ethyl acetate before drying with a rotary evaporator (OSB-2100, Eyela, Japan) and then dissolved in methanol. An injection volume of 2.0 µL was used. The column used was Zorbax Eclipse Plus C18 (2.1 × 50 mm, 1.8 μm) and the mobile phase used was water (A) and methanol (B) with 0.1% formic acid at a flow rate of 0.25 mL min − 1 . From 0 to 3 min, 15% B was used; from 3 to 8 min, 85% B and finally from 8 to 15 min, 15% B was used. All electron spray ionization (ESI) mass spectra were acquired in the positive polarity. Mass spectrum was set to be in the range of 100-500 m/z. The masses corresponding to the possible degradation by-products were predicted one dominant strain, which showed rapid growth on FA at 30 °C for further characterization. BLAST analysis of the 16 S rRNA gene sequences (1408 bp) of strain IMCC1007 was performed, where significant groupings were downloaded. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the strain IMCC1007 belonged to the genus Burkholderia, in the phylogenetic clade of Burkholderia cepacia (Fig. 1A). The 16 S rRNA sequence of IMCC1007 showed 99% similarity with to that of B. cepacia NBRC14074 T . The 16 S rRNA gene sequence of this strain was deposited in the GenBank database with accession number OP522367. Strain IMCC1007 appeared a yellowish creamy and circular colonies on 1/10 TS agar plates ( Fig. 1B and C). IMCC1007 is an aerobic and gram-negative bacterium (Fig. 1D). According to phylogenetic, physiological and biochemical test, this strain was known as Burkhoderia sp. IMCC1007.

Growth features of Burkholderia sp. IMCC1007 with FA
The growth rates and FA degradation of strain IMCC1007 were investigated at their optimum growth temperature (30 °C) with initial 50 mg L − 1 . FA concentration. Strain IMCC1007 showed a short lag phase on early 3 h of incubation, reaching an OD 600 0.06. After 10 h of incubation, the OD 600 of the cultures reached a maximum growth rate (µ) of 0.18 h − 1 with an OD 600 of approximately 0.19. After 12 h, strain IMCC1007 reached the stationary phase of growth ( Fig. 2A). The growth of IMCC1007 in the presence of FA was clearly observed. A correspondence of decrease in the FA concentration was observed on filtrate supernatant in the culture on HPLC analysis. After 12 h of incubation, 93% from the initial FA concentration has been degraded to the residual of about 4.87 mg L − 1 (Fig. 2B). No remaining FA concentration was detected after 14 h of incubation. Associated with this decrease, chromatograms revealed that the significant reduction of FA concentration by strain IMCC1007 over the 14 h culture as comparison with the initial hour of incubation (Fig. 3A). Based on HPLC analysis, none of FA peak was observed at retention time of 8.1 under 268 nm (Fig. 3B), indicating the FA was completely metabolized by strain IMCC1007.

FA degradation rates in correspondence to incubation time, pH and temperature conditions
The effect of incubation time, pH and temperature on degradation rates of IMCC1007 were investigated using 50 mg L − 1 as the sole carbon source (Fig. 4). For incubation time, FA degradation rates were determined at 1, 3, 5, 7 and 12 h. At 7 h incubation time, FA degradation rates increased rapidly up to 2-fold from 12.65 ± 1.93% to 42.71 ± 0.53% as by comparison with existing library (MassHunter, Agilent, USA).

Phytoxicity bioassay test of the detoxified FA compound in maize seedlings
In order to determine the toxicity of FA degradation product, extracted culture filtrate was used against maize seedlings to assess the phytotoxicity effect. Maize seeds (Zea mays) were surface-disinfected with 70% ethanol and 6% NaCIO thrice for 3 min, respectively before rinsed with sterile distilled water. Then, the seeds were placed in water agar plates in a dark condition to allow germination. Germinated seeds were grew on modified Hoagland agar (0.8 g L − 1 Ca(NO 3 ) 2 ; 0.2 g L − 1 KNO 3 , 0.2 g L − 1 MgSO 4 , 0.12 g L − 1 KH 2 PO 4 , 0.5 mL 10x TE, 15 g L − 1 agar) until third true leaf appeared (Peterson et al. 2006). Different concentrations of FA (150 mg L − 1 and 50 mg L − 1 ) and FA degradation product solution were used to incubate germinated seeds for 3 h on leaf plants as for foliar application. Sterilized distilled water was used as a control treatment. Plants were evaluated for necrosis using 0-5 disease score and disease severity percentages were calculated. The number of lesions on each leaf were recorded after 1 week. The photosynthetic parameters of leaves including net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (gs), intercellular CO 2 concentration (Ci) and transpiration rate (E) were measured using portable photosynthesis system (LI-6400, Li-Cor Bioscience, USA) under photon flux density of 1, 200 µ mol photons m − 2 s − 1 after the system reached at steady state equilibrium.

Statistical analyses
All assays were conducted in triplicate, unless otherwise indicated. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Duncan's multiple-range tests were performed to analyze the differences between experimental mean values. Values are shown as the mean ± the standard deviation (SD).

Isolation and identification of FA-degrading strain
The soil samples from rhizosphere of maize plant were used for isolation of FA-degrading bacteria by the enrichment method with FA as a sole carbon and energy source at 30 °C. After several enrichment culture, a turbid culture was observed in the BS medium supplemented with fusaric acid as a sole carbon and energy source, indicating the tolerance ability for growth. After purification, a pure colony, designated as IMCC1007 was finally obtained. We selected only rapid at 30 °C with 91.51 ± 0.19% but showed a reduction trend at above 35 °C onwards (Fig. 4B).

Analysis of possible degraded FA by-products
From LC-MS analysis, several possible chemical compounds were tabulated from extracts taken from 12 h of incubation time (Table 1). Fusaric acid and its derivatives were determined as a major compound including 8-hydroxyfusaric acid (C 10 H 13 NO 3 ) and 6-hydroxy-1-naphthoic acid (C 11 H 8 O 3 ). From this result, it was confirmed the FA was degraded by strain IMCC1007 aerobically. Degradation product such as 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (82.34%) appeared at retention time of 2.47 min and showed the m/z ion peak at 138.12 for the protonated adduct [M + H] + (Fig. 5). This compared to 5 h incubation time (Fig. 4A). The highest degradation rate was achieved at 12 h incubation time with 92.43 ± 1.94%. The degradation rates of acidic conditions were higher than alkaline conditions with exception of pH 6 that marked the highest degradation rates (92.95 ± 0.52%), indicating FA degradation was more favarouble under slightly acidic to neutral pH condition. This pH-dependent result clearly showed that the soil pH (between 6 and 7) where the origin location of strain IMCC1007 is more likely contributed into this higher degradation rates. Notably, FA degradation activities were gradually dropped under alkaline conditions with 20.22 ± 0.61% and 14.31 ± 1.15% respectively (pH 8-9). From the temperature-dependent degradation test, the degradation rates were ~ 22% at 20 °C and ~ 40% at 25 °C respectively. FA degradation was more and Burkholderia ambifaria strain T16 respectively. In this study, Burkholderia sp. strain IMCC1007 was successfully isolated from the maize rhizosphere soil after serial transfer in minimal-enriched media with FA as a sole carbon source. This enrichment procedure recruited the growth of specific group of native bacteria within mixed population by introducing a targeted sole carbon source in the laboratoryadapted condition (Spini et al. 2018). Phylogenetic analysis of 16 S rRNA gene sequences of IMCC1007 revealed that this strain showed closest homology with members of the genus Burkholderia cepacia. Having said that Burkholderia cepacia possessed versatile metabolic capabilities and occupied wide range of ecological niches, various biotechnological applications including bioremediation of recalcitrant xenobiotics, biological control and plant growth promotion have gained their beneficial effects (Jung et al. 2018;Peng et al. 2020). To best of our knowledge, our isolated strain was different from reported literatures, thus enriching the diversity of FA-degrading bacteria.
Several studies have indicated that some other degradation strains were screened using high mycotoxin level at the initial of evaluation rather than low concentrations (Kuang et al. 2022;Tian et al. 2018). Our study showed that the ability of IMCC1007 to degrade FA completely within 14 h at 50 mg L − 1 , exceeded our expectation. As for current challenge in mycotoxin detoxification research, mycotoxin should be completely degraded even at the highest concentration. Given the prevalence of mycotoxin detoxification agent development for early prevention, degradation ability on high concentration should be considered at first. In the current study, the complete degradation of FA was presumably contributed through degradative enzymes ion peak corresponded to a molecular formula of C 7 H 6 O 3 .

Phytotoxicity of degraded-FA byproduct
The degraded-FA byproduct showed no phytotoxic effects on 3 week-old maize seedlings. Plants with degraded-FA treatments showed tolerance with no phytotoxic effect as indicated by a minimal wilting score (6.3%). Of the compounds assessed, fusaric acid gives the most phytotoxic impact, showing severe wilting and observable necrosis at 150 mg L − 1 (Fig. 6). No toxicity or necrosis symptoms was observed in control treatment. The leaf photosynthetic rate of plants with high FA addition was 41% lower than control and degraded treatments respectively (Table 2). In addition, at the highest concentration of FA being added, plants showed a reduced trends in all photosynthesis parameters as compared to other treatments.

Discussion
Many documented genera including bacteria and fungi with FA-degrading ability from various environmental niches have been reported previously. However, very a few records with regards to bacteria capable of FA-degrading were disclosed so far Utsumi et al. 1991;Hu et al. 2012;Simonetti et al. 2018). Those isolates were Klebsiella oxytoca strain HY-1, Pseudomonas cepacia strain UK1, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia strain K27a Control sample (closed triangles) was incubated without bacteria. Each plotted value is the mean of biological triplicates with standard deviation. Error bars are hided by the symbols  or other bioactive compounds constitutively expressed by IMCC1007, making a good option for mycotoxin biotransformation rather than cell adsoption mechanism.
The success of on-site detoxification employing native microbial species could be voided by imbalanced nutrient and adverse conditions which are common in natural environment. Next, we explored the optimal degradation rate for different environmental conditions. Previous studies of bacterial growth concomitant with decreasing susbtrate showed that Stenotrophomonas sp. strain CW117 could degrade 47 mg L − 1 of aflatoxin (AFB 1 ) and 51 mg L − 1 of ochratoxin (OTA) within 24 h at 90 °C, providing degradation rations of 91.2% and 91.8% respectively (Cai et al. 2020). Approximately up to 80% of FA (initial concentration, 2.5 mM) was degraded by Burkholderia ambifaria T16 after 20 h at 30 °C (growth rate was recorded as 0.243 h − 1 ) (Alvarez et al. 2022;Xu et al. 2017) reported that Bacillus shackletonii strain L7 exhibited the highest degradation rate at pH 8 and 70 °C respectively at 72 h. In comparison with the published result data, the highest degradation rate of Burkholderia sp. strain IMCC1007 was greater than 90%, appeared at temperature 30 °C and pH 6 respectively.
Different results existed regarding to degradation products after FA biotransformation (Thanh et al. 2020;Crutcher et al. 2017b). The present result differed from previous research as fusarinol was not detected. The logical behind this may be due to difference of composition media used for incubation period. In this present study, conversion of

Conclusion
Based on our result, soil-derived bacteria Burkholderia sp. IMCC1007 was successfully isolated by enrichment protocol, in which exhibited FA-degrading ability. Strain IMCC1007 showed faster growth rate by utilizing FA as a sole carbon and energy source despite being recalcitrant. It would be intriguing to characterize further the genes involved FA degradation with an attention to verify the metabolic pathways taken by IMCC1007 for energy production. The possible byproducts during FA degradation, 4-hydroxybenzoic, considerably less toxic than FA provides a novel insight into exploration of new metabolite in the development of mycotoxin detoxification strategies. Apart from acting as a detoxification agent, IMCC1007 can be a promising candidate for biofungicide against mycotoxinproducing fungi in wider applicable scale, aimed at cutting the dependency of chemical fungicide and minimizing loss in the agricultural productivity. With the above notions in consideration, the use of IMCC1007 would be economically and environmentally practical option in the mycotoxin suppression. Further studies on molecular levels is needed to ascertain the exact resistance mechanisms towards phytotoxic particularly FA.
FA into 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (C 7 H 6 O 3 ) probably through chemical biotransformation. 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, also known as p-hydroxybenzoic acid (PHBA) was a phenolic derivative of benzoic acid. There were strong evidences that Burkholderia sp. possessed a ubiquitious benzoic acid degradation gene cluster in their genomic regions (Morya et al. 2019(Morya et al. , 2020. Taking into account the degradation product detected and the observable growth under FA as a carbon source, we hypothesized that strain IMCC1007 hydrolyzed FA using this degradative pathway. Mycotoxin residual fate after detoxification has become an issue in which the release of toxin intermediates that could be harmful to environment. FA was a causative agent for Fusarium wilt and damage effects of FA on plants was widely reported (López-Díaz et al. 2018;Wang et al., 2017). 4-hydroxybenzoic acid also known as p-hydroxybenzoic acid has been reported to be less toxic (Gerig and Blum 1991). This compound has the hydroxyl group (OH − ) in the position para to the carboxyl side chain and with no butyl side chain (Shalaby et al. 2012). To confirm the phytotoxicity of 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, a bioassay on maize seedlings was performed. The significant decrease in phytotoxicity and photosynthetic parameters as FA-degraded byproduct (4-hydroxybenzoic acid) was sprayed on the maize seedlings. The result was in agreement with the result by Wang et al. (2020) as they reported that cucumber grown with FA gave a highly disease severity occurence. Reduced phytoxicity effect owned by 4-hydroxybenzoic acid has been observed on cucumber seedlings growth, which led to less changes in the rhizosphere microbial composition (Jin et al. 2020). The reduced phytoxicity of this compound indicates the importance of butyl side chain in FA toxicity. These results further support the potential for applying IMCC1007 for mycotoxin degradation in agrifood industry, hence reducing the utilization of chemical fungicides. This study showed zero risk towards human health as no potent harmful of FA degradative products were detected. 1.84 ± 0.26 1.55 ± 0.02 1.11 ± 0.14 0.75 ± 0.08 Transpiration rate (mmolH 2 Om − 2 s − 1 ) 7.28 ± 0.12 7.28 ± 0.29 6.89 ± 0.14 6.62 ± 0.01 Intercellular CO 2 (µmolCO 2 mol − 1 ) 386.07 ± 1.94 378.52 ± 2.47 374.98 ± 2.08 366.19 ± 3.87 Table 2 Growth, necrosis and photosynthesis parameters of maize seedling plants. Data shown as the mean of triplicate with standard deviations