Se metallomics during lactic fermentation of Se-enriched yogurt

•Se metallomics during lactic fermentation for preparing yogurt was evaluated.•AF4 technique was used for pre-fractionation before separation by SDS–PAGE.•Chaperones, heat-shock proteins, were affected by the presence of selenium.•Selenocysteine is the primary seleno-containing species found in Se-rich yogurt. Selenium biotransformation by lactic acid bacteria during the preparation of Se-enriched yogurt was evaluated. The study focused on the distribution of selenium in the aqueous soluble protein fraction and the detection of selenoamino acids. Screening of selenium in Tris-buffer–urea soluble fraction was carried out by sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis after pre-fractionating with asymmetric field flow fractionation using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry as the detector. Selenium-containing fractions were identified by peptide mapping using nano LC-ESI/LTQMS. Proteins such as thioredoxin, glutaredoxin, albumin, β-lactoglobulin, and lactoperoxidase were identified in the selenium-containing fraction. All these proteins were detected in both the control and the selenium-enriched yogurt except chaperones, which were only detected in the control samples. Chaperones are heat-shock proteins expressed in response to elevated temperature or other cellular stresses. Selenium may have an effect on chaperones expression in Lactobacillus. For the amino acids analysis, selenocysteine was the primary seleno-containing species.