Acute exposure to ustiloxin A affects growth and development of early life zebrafish, Danio rerio

Ustiloxin A is a cyclopeptide mycotoxin originally isolated from rice false smut balls (FSBs) that formed in rice spikelets infected by the fungal pathogen Ustilaginoidea virens. Studies have shown that ustiloxin A was toxic to animals, but the toxicological evidence is still lacking. To reveal the negative influence of ustiloxin A on model organism, zebrafish were selected and exposed to ustiloxin A at concentrations of 0, 0.25, 2.5 or 25 μM from 2 h post-fertilization (hpf) to 144 hpf. The hatching rates of embryos in the 25 μM exposure group was 12.85% less than the control group at 96 hpf. Meanwhile, exposure to 0.25, 2.5 or 25 μM ustiloxin A resulted in a distinct dose-dependent increase in mortality rate of embryos at 96 hpf. We also found that exposed to ustiloxin A could cause some other damages on zebrafish larvae, such as growth delay and increased heart rate. In addition, the athletic behavior of zebrafish larvae exposed to ustiloxin A at 25 μM was dramatically different with that of control. Transcriptome sequencing showed that abundances of 339 transcripts (125 up-regulated and 214 down-regulated) were significantly altered in larvae exposed to 25 μM of ustiloxin A. Several of the crucial genes were validated by RT-qPCR. This is the first report on the toxicologic study of ustiloxins against model organism zebrafish. Results suggested that ustiloxins have become a potential danger for food security.