Lactobacillus reuteri CRL1098 Produces Cobalamin

MARIA PIA TARANTO; VERA, JOSÉ LUIS; JEROEN HUGENHOLTZ; FONT DE VALDEZ, GRACIELA; FERNANDO SESMA

JOURNAL OF BACTERIOLOGY

American Society for Microbiology

Año: 2003 vol. 185 p. 5643 - 5647

0021-9193

We found that Lactobacillus reuteri CRL1098, a lactic acid bacterium isolated from sour dough, is able to produce cobalamin. The sugar-glycerol cofermentation in vitamin B12-free medium showed that this strain was able to reduce glycerol through a well-known cobalamin-dependent reaction with the formation of 1,3-propanediol as a final product. The cell-free extract of L. reuteri corrected the coenzyme B12 requirement of Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp lactis ATCC 7830, and allowed the growth of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (metE cbiB) and Escherichia coli (metE) in minimal medium. Preliminary genetic studies of cobalamin biosynthesis genes from L. reuteri allowed the identification of Cob genes which  encode for CobA, CbiJ and CbiK, enzymes involved in the cobalamin pathway. The cobamide produced by L. reuteri, isolated in its cyanide form using RP-HPLC, showed an UV-Vis spectrum identical to that of standard cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12).