Formation of folates by microorganisms: towards the biotechnological production of this vitamin
Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, pp 1–8
José Luis Revuelta, Cristina Serrano-Amatriain, Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro, Alberto Jiménez
Folic Acid is a major problem for some people - it builds up inside of their bodies
Folate is much better than artificial Folic Acid, but has been too expensive to use
- Off topic: Folic Acid - the horror story (for a small percentage of people) - Sept 2013
- https://vitamindwiki.com/Search+Results?hl=en&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF-8&btnG=Google+Search&googles.x=0&googles.y=0&q=%22folic+acid%22&domains=vitamindwiki.com&sitesearch=vitamindwiki.comSearch VitaminDWiki for %22FOLIC ACID%22 537 items of Aug 2018
- Autism 17 times more likely with excessive Folic Acid and B-12 (now added to bread) – May 2016
Folates (vitamin B9) are essential micronutrients which function as cofactors in one-carbon transfer reactions involved in the synthesis of nucleotides and amino acids.
Folate deficiency is associated with important diseases such as
- cancer,
- anemia,
- cardiovascular diseases, or
- neural tube defects.
Epidemiological data show that folate deficiency is still highly prevalent in many populations. Hence, food fortification with synthetic folic acid (i.e., folic acid supplementation) has become mandatory in many developed countries.
However, folate biofortification of staple crops and dairy products as well as folate bioproduction using metabolically engineered microorganisms are promising alternatives to folic acid supplementation. Here, we review the current strategies aimed at overproducing folates in microorganisms, in view to implement an economic feasible process for the biotechnological production of the vitamin.