Development of an Escherichia coli-based electrochemical biosensor for mycotoxin toxicity detection

•E. coli, as recognition element, is applied to biotoxicity detection of AFB1 and ZEN.•The cytotoxicity of AFB1 is more severe than the cytotoxicity of ZEN to E. coli.•A synergistic biotoxicity effect is observed for the AFB1 and ZEN.•The E. coli-based biosensor has been successfully applied to actual samples. Mycotoxin contamination in food and feed is a global concern because mycotoxin contamination can cause both acute and chronic health effects in humans and animals. In the present work, an Escherichia coli-based biosensor is described for the toxicity assessment of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and zearalenone (ZEN). In this electrochemical biosensor, E. coli is used as the signal recognition element, p-benzoquinone is used as the mediator, and a two-step reaction procedure has been developed to separate the mediator from the mycotoxins. The current value of the as-prepared microbial biosensor exhibits a linear decrease with concentrations of AFB1 and ZEN in the range of 0.01–0.3 and 0.05–0.5 μg/mL, with detection limits reaching 1 and 6 ng/mL, respectively. The IC25 values obtained by the present method are 0.25 and 0.40 μg/mL for AFB1 and ZEN, which shows that the cytotoxicity of AFB1 to E. coli is more severe than the cytotoxicity of ZEN to E. coli. The combined toxic effect of these two mycotoxins has also been explored, and synergistic biotoxicity has been observed. Moreover, the biosensor is successfully applied to the toxicity evaluation of mycotoxins in real samples, including peanut and corn oils. This work could provide new insight into mycotoxin and microorganism interactions and could establish a new approach for future mycotoxin detection.