Novel vitamin B12-producing Enterococcus spp. and preliminary in vitro evaluation of probiotic potentials.

Vitamin B12 is an essential nutrient required for crucial metabolic processes in humans. Vitamin B12-producing lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have been attracting increased attentions currently because of the generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status. Most of recent studies focused on Lactobacillus, and little is known about B12-producing Enterococcus. In the present study, five Enterococcus strains isolated from infant feces were identified as vitamin B12 producers. Among them, Enterococcus faecium LZ86 had the highest B12 production (499.8 ± 83.7 μg/L), and the B12 compound from LZ86 was identified as the biological active adenosylcobalamin, using reversed phase high-performance liquid (RP-HPLC) chromatogram. We examined basic probiotic and safety properties of E. faecium LZ86 and found that it was able to survive harsh environmental conditions (hot temperature, cold temperature, ethanol and osmotic stresses), tolerate gastric acid (pH 2.0, 3 h) and bile salts (0.3%), and adhere to Caco-2 cells. We also showed that E. faecium LZ86 is devoid of transferable antibiotic resistance and potential virulence factors. Together, here we report a B12-producing E. faecium strain LZ86 firstly, which has desirable probiotic properties and may serve as a good candidate for vitamin B12 fortification in food industry.