In vitro removal of ochratoxin A by wine lactic acid bacteria.

A study was carried out to determine the in vitro interaction between ochratoxin A (OTA) and wine lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Fifteen strains belonging to five relevant oenological LAB species were grown in liquid synthetic culture medium containing OTA. The portion of OTA removed during the bacterial growth was 8 to 28%. The OTA removed from the supernatants was partially recovered (31 to 57%) from the bacterial pellet. Cell-free extracts of three representative strains were produced by disrupting cells in a French pressure cell. The ability of crude cell-free extracts to degrade OTA was studied. OTA was not degraded by cell-free extracts of wine LAB strains, and no degradation products of OTA were detected in the high-performance liquid chromatograms of the methanol extract of the bacterial pellet. On the basis of these results, we conclude that OTA removal by wine LAB is a cell-binding phenomenon. The chemistry and the molecular basis of OTA binding to wine LAB remains unknown.