NMN jumped from the research report of the rejuvenating effect that when it was administered to 2-year-old mice (about 60 years old in human age) for 1 week, it showed the motor ability and appearance of 6 months old (about 20 years old in human age). It is a compound that has attracted attention and its anti-aging effect has been scientifically proven.Since then, NMN has been marketed as one of the scientifically-based foods "Nutritionicals" (a term coined from nutrition: Nutrition and pharmaceuticals: Pharmaceuticals) that are useful for maintaining daily health. However, all of them are expensive because there is no industrially efficient way to produce NMN.

　Therefore, this group, which is engaged in research to find microorganisms and enzymes that catalyze new reactions from the natural world and link them to industrial applications, has started searching for lactic acid bacteria that produce NMN.As a result, it was discovered that lactic acid bacteria of the genus Fructose produce NMN, and it was also found that NMN is accumulated in the cells when fructose (fructose) is added.This means that it is possible to "formulate the lactic acid bacterium itself containing NMN", which can be expected to have not only the neutralistic effect of NMN but also the probiotic effect of lactic acid bacteria.

　The current NMN production using this lactic acid bacterium is several mg per liter of medium, and it is said that further productivity improvement is necessary for industrial production, but for the construction of an efficient NMN industrial production process. It can be said that this is a result of great progress.

Paper information:[Scientific Reports] Nicotinamide mononucleotide production by fructophilic lactic acid bacteria