Resistant Starches Types 2 and 4 Have Differential Effects on the Composition of the Fecal Microbiota in Human Subjects

By I. Martínez, Jaehyoung Kim, Patrick R. Duffy, V. Schlegel, J. Walter. PLoS ONE, 2010

623 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Background To systematically develop dietary strategies based on resistant starch (RS) that modulate the human gut microbiome, detailed in vivo studies that evaluate the effects of different forms of RS on the community structure and population dynamics of the gut microbiota are necessary. The aim of the present study was to gain a community wide perspective of the effects of RS types 2 (RS2) and 4 (RS4) on the fecal microbiota in human individuals. Methods and Findings Ten human subjects consumed crackers for three weeks each containing either RS2, RS4, or native starch in a double-blind, crossover design. Multiplex sequencing of 16S rRNA tags revealed that both types of RS induced several significant compositional alterations in the fecal microbial populations, with differential effects on community structure. RS4 but not RS2 induced phylum-level changes, significantly increasing Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes while decreasing Firmicutes. At the species level, the changes evoked by RS4 were increases in Bifidobacterium adolescentis and Parabacteroides distasonis, while RS2 significantly raised the proportions of Ruminococcus bromii and Eubacterium rectale when compared to RS4. The population shifts caused by RS4 were numerically substantial for several taxa, leading for example, to a ten-fold increase in bifidobacteria in three of the subjects, enriching them to 18–30% of the fecal microbial community. The responses to RS and their magnitudes varied between individuals, and they were reversible and tightly associated with the consumption of RS. Conclusion Our results demonstrate that RS2 and RS4 show functional differences in their effect on human fecal microbiota composition, indicating that the chemical structure of RS determines its accessibility by groups of colonic bacteria. The findings imply that specific bacterial populations could be selectively targeted by well designed functional carbohydrates, but the inter-subject variations in the response to RS indicates that such strategies might benefit from more personalized approaches.

Subfields: Infectious Diseases, Molecular Biology, Nutrition and Dietetics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/18517f99e355f01f24cf22ff4eb8f9c3d8e01018

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Citations in the corpus

Ruminococcus bromii is a keystone species for the degradation of resistant starch in the human colon (2012, background): “bromii and other Gram-positive bacteria in fecal samples during consumption of diets high in RS (Abell et al., 2008; Martı́nez et al., 2010; Walker et al., 2011).”
The Effect of Probiotics on the Production of Short-Chain Fatty Acids by Human Intestinal Microbiome (2020, background): “The type of RS has a significant effect on the composition of the intestinal microbiome [46].”
The Effects of Vegetarian and Vegan Diets on Gut Microbiota (2019, background): “A decrease in Firmicutes levels, usually occurring in favor of Bacteroidetes and Bifidobacteria, as seen in response to an increase in resistant starches, may be beneficial in preventing and treating obesity (41).”
Dietary Fiber Confers Protection against Flu by Shaping Ly6c− Patrolling Monocyte Hematopoiesis and CD8+ T Cell Metabolism (2018, background): “Dietary fiber content can shape the composition of the gut microbiota (Carmody et al., 2015; De Filippo et al., 2010; Holscher et al., 2015; Martı́nez et al., 2010; Trompette et al., 2014).”
Dietary fiber and prebiotics and the gastrointestinal microbiota (2017, background): “Resistant starch type 2 and 4 are both composed of glucose monosaccharides linked by a-1,6 glycosidic bonds, resistant starch type 4 has additional crosslinkages by phosphorylation.(35) Soluble corn fiber is corn starch fraction rich in 1,6-glycosidic bonds.”
Moving pictures of the human microbiome (2011, result): “For this reason our results do not necessarily contradict previous Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE)-based work in this area [4,15-17], which is suggestive of a core gut microbiome but at a coarser phylogenetic resolution and more limited dynamic range.”
Environmental and Gut Bacteroidetes: The Food Connection (2011, background): “The observed changes were completely reversible within 1 week, demonstrating the high population dynamics (Martinez et al., 2010).”
Dynamics of Human Gut Microbiota and Short-Chain Fatty Acids in Response to Dietary Interventions with Three Fermentable Fibers (2018, background): “been observed previously when type 2 or type 4 resistant starches are consumed (37).”
Resistant starch: promise for improving human health. (2013, methodology): “Individual study participants also appeared to have widely different responses to dietary starch (8,9).”
Human genetics shape the gut microbiome. (2014, neutral): “However, we did not find a relationship between Christensenellaceae and diet information in human studies (Wu et al., 2011; Martı́nez et al., 2010; Koren et al., 2012).”
Short chain fatty acids in human gut and metabolic health. (2020, positive): “Human studies with starch supplementation supported the key role of R. bromii and E. rectale in starch degradation (Martínez et al. , 2010; Walker et al. , 2011).”
Sorghum: An Underutilized Cereal Whole Grain with the Potential to Assist in the Prevention of Chronic Disease (2015, neutral): “Sorghum contains resistant starch (RS) and fermentation of RS in the colon is linked to a number of positive effects including those on the gut microbiome.((50,158)) Studies specific to energy control with sorghum intake are limited however a recent study by Shen et al.”