Systematic genome assessment of B-vitamin biosynthesis suggests co-operation among gut microbes

By Stefanía Magnúsdóttir, D. Ravcheev, V. de Crécy-Lagard, Ines Thiele. Frontiers in Genetics, 2015

760 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The human gut microbiota supplies its host with essential nutrients, including B-vitamins. Using the PubSEED platform, we systematically assessed the genomes of 256 common human gut bacteria for the presence of biosynthesis pathways for eight B-vitamins: biotin, cobalamin, folate, niacin, pantothenate, pyridoxine, riboflavin, and thiamin. On the basis of the presence and absence of genome annotations, we predicted that each of the eight vitamins was produced by 40–65% of the 256 human gut microbes. The distribution of synthesis pathways was diverse; some genomes had all eight biosynthesis pathways, whereas others contained no de novo synthesis pathways. We compared our predictions to experimental data from 16 organisms and found 88% of our predictions to be in agreement with published data. In addition, we identified several pairs of organisms whose vitamin synthesis pathway pattern complemented those of other organisms. This analysis suggests that human gut bacteria actively exchange B-vitamins among each other, thereby enabling the survival of organisms that do not synthesize any of these essential cofactors. This result indicates the co-evolution of the gut microbes in the human gut environment. Our work presents the first comprehensive assessment of the B-vitamin synthesis capabilities of the human gut microbiota. We propose that in addition to diet, the gut microbiota is an important source of B-vitamins, and that changes in the gut microbiota composition can severely affect our dietary B-vitamin requirements.

Subfields: Clinical Biochemistry, Molecular Biology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/41b17a3b95ee4a7f7a2d269e01e798314147550e

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In Molecular Biology

1. K. Scott
2. Almut Heinken
3. D. Müller-Navarra
4. S. Duncan
5. G. Gibson
6. Ines Thiele
7. Liliane Ruess
8. J. Durack

Citations in the corpus

• Gut microbiota functions: metabolism of nutrients and other food components (2017, background): “[56] have systematically explored the genomes of 256 common gut bacteria for the presence of biosynthetic pathways for eight B vitamins, namely biotin, cobalamin, folate, niacin, pantothenate, pyridoxine, riboflavin, and thiamin.”
• Faecalibacterium prausnitzii: from microbiology to diagnostics and prognostics (2017, background): “In contrast, this species has been predicted as a cobalamin producer (Magnusdottir et al., 2015).”
• Essential Biomolecules in Food Webs (2019, background): “Moreover, the intestinal flora plays a major role in the provision with B7, as shown for humans (Magnúsdóttir et al., 2015).”
• Beneficial effects on host energy metabolism of short-chain fatty acids and vitamins produced by commensal and probiotic bacteria (2017, background): “plantarum WCFS1 was shown to be able to produce thiamin although some of the biosynthesis genes were missing [48].”
• The gut microbiome: Relationships with disease and opportunities for therapy (2018, background): “, 2017) and B (Magnúsdóttir et al., 2015); hormones (Yatsunenko et al.”