Selenium-enriched yeast has long been recognized as an important nutritional source of selenium and studies have suggested that supplementation with this material provides chemo-preventative benefits beyond those observed for selenomethionine supplementation, despite the fact that selenomethionine accounts for 60-84% of the total selenium in selenized yeasts. There is much ongoing research into the characterization of the species comprising the remaining 16-40% of the selenium, with nearly 100 unique selenium-containing metabolites identified in aqueous extracts of selenized yeasts (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). Herein, we discuss the analytical approaches involved in the identification and quantification of these metabolites, and present a recently created online database (DOI: 10.4224/40001921) of reported selenium species along with chemical structures and unique mass spectral features.
Keywords: SELM-1; high-resolution mass spectrometry; selenium metabolites; selenized yeast; selenomethionine; speciation.
© Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of National Research Council Canada, 2021.