B-group vitamin-producing lactic acid bacteria: a tool to bio-enrich foods and delivery natural vitamins to the host

MARCELA ALBUQUERQUE CAVALCANTI DE ALBUQUERQUE; MARÍA DEL MILAGRO TERÁN; LUIZ HENRIQUE GROTO GARUTTI; ANA CLARA CANDELARIA CUCIK ; SUSANA MARTA ISAY SAAD; BERNARDETTTE DORA GOMBOSSY DE MELO FRANCO

Lactic Acid Bacteria: A Functional Approach

CRC Press

Lugar: Boca Ratón, Florida; Año: 2021; p. 106 - 123

Vitamins are micronutrients that play an important role as cofactors for several biochemical reactions that occur in all living cells. Although vitamins act as precursors for different coenzymes, humans are not able to produce many of them. Thus, these nutrients must be obtained exogenously, especially from the diet and/ or dietary supplements. In this context, B-group vitamins are water-soluble nutrients that contribute to maintain the homeostasis of humans including carbohydrate and fat metabolism, which impacts on energy generation, and in the synthesis of DNA and amino acids (Magnúsdóttir et al. 2015, LeBlanc et al. 2017). In the past few years, people are more concerned about consuming foods that are more natural and that present a health claim. Although B-vitamins are found in many foods, it is known that some of these nutrients are temperature sensitive leading to their destruction during the cooking process (Magnúsdóttir et al. 2015, Albuquerque et al. 2017). Nowadays, it is common to find products fortified with chemically synthesized vitamins. Although this practice is mandatory for some countries such as the USA, Brazil, Argentina, and Canada, it is known that the use of synthetic nutrients to fortify foods may cause some adverse effects to human health (Albuquerque et al. 2016). Consumers who eat balanced diets may ingest a highest amount of the nutrient by consuming fortified foods. In addition, synthetic vitamins require more time to be metabolized by humans than the vitamins in their natural form. On the other hand, some microorganisms are able to produce some specific bioactive compounds, including B-group vitamins, and studies have shown that different strains of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and bifidobacteria synthesize de novo natural forms of thiamine (B1) (Masuda et al. 2012), riboflavin (B2) (Yépez et al. 2019), folate (B9) (Albuquerque et al. 2016), cobalamin (B12) (Li et al. 2017, Piwowarek et al. 2018), and other vitamins belonging to the B group (LeBlanc et al. 2017). Therefore, the use of vitamin-producing microorganisms may represent a more natural and consumer-friendly alternative to fortification using chemically synthesized vitamins. Additionally, these microorganisms can be used as a tool to increase the vitamin content of foods through the fermentation processes. They can also act as a vitamin bio-supplement by delivering these nutrients throughout the digestion of the host or even by producing B-vitamins directly in the human gut (Rowland et al. 2018). Considering that the vitamin production by LAB or bifidobacteria is straindependent, it is important to point out that depending on the environmental conditions such as pH, temperature, and available nutrients, the microbial vitamin production may be enhanced (Sybesma et al. 2003). Also, the use of genetic engineering techniques may allow these microorganisms to overexpress the production of these nutrients which represents an important technological characteristic for the use of vitaminproducing microorganisms by the food or pharmaceutical industries (LeBlanc et al. 2010). Therefore, this chapter will discuss the use of LAB as a tool to bio-enrich foods with natural B-vitamins produced during fermentation process and how these beneficial microorganisms can act as bio-supplements to deliver these natural nutrients along the gastrointestinal tract during host digestion. In addition, the use of these vitamin-producing microorganisms to produce vitamins directly in the human gut will be also addressed.