Abstract
Nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN), an intermediate in nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide biosynthesis, is recently attracting much attention for its pharmacological and anti-aging efficacies. However, current commercial products containing NMN are very high-priced because efficient and facile methods for industrial NMN production are limited. In this study, aiming for its nutraceutical application, we attempted to screen lactic acid bacteria for intracellular and/or extracellular NMN production. Using a bioassay system with an auxotrophic yeast that requires nicotinamide riboside (NR; dephosphorylated NMN), three candidates were obtained from a library of 174 strains of facultative anaerobic lactic acid bacteria. All three candidates belonged to the genus Fructobacillus and produced NR in the culture media (0.8–1.5 mg/l). Lactic acid bacteria of the genus Fructobacillus are known to use d-fructose as an electron acceptor in anaerobic lactic acid fermentation; addition of d-fructose to the medium caused intracellular accumulation of NMN and NR, but no extracellular production of these compounds was observed. Draft genome sequencing for one of the candidates suggested that nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase, which exists commonly in mammals but is less reported in microorganisms, is a key enzyme for NMN and NR production in the fructophilic bacteria.
Highlights
Some companies do provide some supplements containing NMN
We focused on lactic acid bacteria (LAB) as NMN-producing microorganisms as LAB cells producing NMN could be used in the industrial NMN production process and the organism itself could be used as probiotics
Each candidate LAB was cultivated in MRS liquid medium and the amounts of NMN and NR were assessed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)
Summary
Some companies do provide some supplements containing NMN. commercial NMN-containing products are very expensive (US$ 130–400/g for tablet products; US$ 5–7/g for powder products). We screened 174 strains of LAB isolated from natural resources (National Institute of Technology and Evaluation, Japan) for their NMN or NR producing activities using an NR-auxotrophic yeast. Three LAB were found to produce halos of the NR-auxotrophic yeast around their colonies, suggesting that these LAB candidates produced and secreted NMN or NR outside their cells (Fig. 1).
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