Biogenic production of selenocysteine by Enterococcus faecium ABMC-05: an indigenous lactic acid bacterium from fermented Mexican beverage

Abstract

Lactic acid bacteria have been studied for their ability to accumulate inorganic selenium, which is reduced to its elemental form or could be integrated into selenoproteins in the form of selenocysteine. This ability to produce bioavailable organic selenium for humans is an advantage that could be exploited in the production of functional foods. In this work, Enterococcus faecium ABMC-05 isolated from a traditional Mexican beverage (tepache) and with NCBI entry number OL413240 was used. Microorganism selenization was performed after the determination of minimal inhibitory concentration of Na2SeO3 (184 mg/L), which was calculated using the graphical method of Talmadge and Fitch. The selenium concentration of accumulated selenium was calculated by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). The concentration of selenium at 48 h of fermentation was 39.92 mg/L, which represented 23.8% of selenium at medium. This value was consistent with those reported for other lactic acid bacteria. Finally, it was determined the selenocysteine presence in biomass recovery after fermentation using RP-HPLC technique. With these results it was confirmed the biogenic production of selenocysteine by Enterococcus faecium ABMC-05 using an inorganic source.