Diversity of lactic acid bacteria isolated from tropical fruits of northern Argentina and mannitol production by selected strains

RUIZ RODRIGUEZ, L.; HARTH, H.; WECKX, S.; HEBERT, E.M.; DE VUYST, L.; MOZZI, F.

Conferencia; SFAM Summer Conferences; 2015

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are ubiquitous microorganisms that are used as starter cultures, as probiotics, and in the production of interesting compounds. Exploration of the microbial biodiversity in virgin niches may lead to the isolation of unique strains with interesting technological and/or health-promoting properties. To date, LAB present in fruits have not been widely studied. Northern Argentina has a large diversity of tropical fruit trees  that can be considered an interesting and rich source of LAB. On the other hand, mannitol is an industrially relevant polyol produced by certain LAB by reducing fructose, which is one of the main sugar present in fruits. This study aimed to isolate and identify LAB from fresh tropical fruits and flowers from Northern Argentina and to evaluate their ability to produce mannitol.