CERELA   05438
CENTRO DE REFERENCIA PARA LACTOBACILOS
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
B-group vitamin production by lactic acid bacteria from the CERELA (Argentina) culture collection
Autor/es:
JONATHAN EMILIANO LAIÑO; MARIANELA JUAREZ DEL VALLE; FERNANDO SESMA; GRACIELA SAVOY DE GIORI
Lugar:
Foz do Iguaçu,
Reunión:
Congreso; 26º Congresso Brasileiro de Microbiologia; 2011
Institución organizadora:
Sociedade Brasileira de Microbiologia
Resumen:
Although most vitamins are present in a variety of foods, human vitamin deficiencies still occur in many countries, mainly due to malnutrition not only as a result of insufficient food intake but also because of bad eating habits. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are found in a wide range of habitats and contribute to the organoleptic, technological or nutritional properties of fermented foods. In this sense, LAB with the ability to synthesize vitamins has attracted significant attention from the food industry since it was shown that the concentration of these essential nutrients can increase during food production due to bacterial biosynthesis. The CERELA culture collection contains over 2000 LAB strains that were isolated from different fermented foods elaborated principally in the Northwestern region of Argentina. We evaluated the B group vitamin producing capacities of strains belonging to the Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus species. LAB strains were activated and then cultivated in chemically defined medium where specific B group vitamins (riboflavin, folate, B12) were omitted but that contained all of their precursors. The vitamin production by the strains that were able to grow without the exogenous addition of vitamins was evaluated using microbiological assays, ELISA and HPLC. From the over 200 strains tested, 108 were able to produce folates, 58 were able to produce riboflavin and only one was able to produce cobalamin. The increase of B-group vitamin concentrations in fermented foods is possible through judicious selection of the microbial species and cultivation conditions. The strains identified in this study are now being used to develop fermented foods with increased B-group vitamin concentrations aimed at specific population groups were vitamin deficiencies persist.