Zearalenone [FITC]

Contamination of animal feed with Fusarium spp results in accumulation of mycotoxins including deoxynivalenol. In animals, deoxynivalenol is metabolized to de-epoxy deoxynivalenol (DOM-1), which is generally considered to be a non-toxic metabolite; however, recent studies demonstrated that DOM-1 can reduce steroid production and induce apoptosis in the bovine ovary. The objectives of this study were to assess the effects of DOM-1 on applied aspects of reproductive function in cattle, specifically sperm function and embryo development in vitro and follicle growth and superovulatory responses in vivo. The effect of naturally contaminated feed on superovulatory responses was assessed; a dose of 6 ppm deoxynivalenol increased blood DOM-1 concentrations to 20 ng/ml, but this did not alter the number of viable embryos recovered on day 7. However, intrafollicular injection of DOM-1 (100 ng/ml) directly into the growing dominant follicle resulted in cessation of follicular growth over the subsequent 3 days. Treatment with DOM-1 reduced motility of bull spermatozoa over a 10-h period in vitro. Addition of DOM-1 to oocytes in vitro during IVM did not alter rates of cumulus expansion and nuclear maturation, but treatment during IVF reduced the rate of blastocyst formation. These data illustrate that DOM-1 is more biologically active than previously thought and negatively impacted reproductive outcomes in cattle.

Zearalenone (ZEA) is one of the main mycotoxins widely spread in contaminated cereal crops, which poses a great threat to food safety as well as human and animal health. Biological control strategies are emerging as important solutions to eliminate mycotoxin contaminations. However, molecular mechanisms underlying ZEA cytotoxic effects are only partly understood. Noncoding RNAs and chromatin accessibilities are important regulators of gene expression and implicate in a variety of biological processes. Here, we established a study model of porcine intestinal epithelial cells upon ZEA exposure and presented a RNA-seq dataset for mRNA, microRNA, and lncRNA profiling in 18 experimental samples. In addition, chromatin accessibilities of four samples were also explored by ATAC-seq. This dataset will shed new light on gene expression profiling and transcriptional regulation of animal cells in the response to ZEA exposure, which further contributes to detecting biomarkers and drug targets for predicting and controlling ZEA contamination.