Microbial degradation of complex carbohydrates in the gut

By H. Flint, K. Scott, S. Duncan, P. Louis, E. Forano. Gut microbes, 2012

2,072 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Bacteria that colonize the mammalian intestine collectively possess a far larger repertoire of degradative enzymes and metabolic capabilities than their hosts. Microbial fermentation of complex non-digestible dietary carbohydrates and host–derived glycans in the human intestine has important consequences for health. Certain dominant species, notably among the Bacteroidetes, are known to possess very large numbers of genes that encode carbohydrate active enzymes and can switch readily between different energy sources in the gut depending on availability. Nevertheless, more nutritionally specialized bacteria appear to play critical roles in the community by initiating the degradation of complex substrates such as plant cell walls, starch particles and mucin. Examples are emerging from the Firmicutes, Actinobacteria and Verrucomicrobium phyla, but more information is needed on these little studied groups. The impact of dietary carbohydrates, including prebiotics, on human health requires understanding of the complex relationship between diet composition, the gut microbiota and metabolic outputs.

Subfields: Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/460ff0a50f5b4c2aa6eea672d451b4c24f9da34b

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Citations in the corpus

Impact of Omega-3 Fatty Acids on the Gut Microbiota (2017, background): “This gut community has many degrading enzymes and metabolic capabilities that are able to break down macromolecules into smaller chemical compounds, which can then be uptaken by enterocytes [4].”
Gut Bacteroides species in health and disease (2021, background): “These sophisticated PULs provide the major protein machinery for carbohydrate acquisition and the initiation of metabolism in many Bacteroides species.(9) These systems are pivotal to the colonization of nutritional niches and formation of gutmicrobial ecosystems.”
U.S. immigration westernizes the human gut microbiome (2018, background): “In HmongThai, we found an enrichment of pathways relating to the degradation of complex carbohydrates, including b-(1,4)mannan degradation and starch degradation (Flint et al., 2012).”
Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii influence the production of mucus glycans and the development of goblet cells in the colonic epithelium of a gnotobiotic model rodent (2013, background): “The microbiota expresses a wide range of carbohydrate-degrading enzymes which process otherwise indigestible dietary compounds and mucus polysaccharides [13,14].”
REVIEW: The rumen microbiome: Composition, abundance, diversity, and new investigative tools (2014, background): “succinogenes, and more than 140 for both Ruminococcus species (Flint et al., 2012).”
Sorghum: An Underutilized Cereal Whole Grain with the Potential to Assist in the Prevention of Chronic Disease (2015, positive): “(48) Here, the RS can act as a prebiotic (49,50) by stimulating the proliferation of beneficial bacteria already in residence in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT).”
Bacterial symbiosis in the fish gut and its role in health and metabolism (2017, background): “However, carbohydrate metabolism by the complex microbial system has also been reported (Flint et al. 2012).”
Dietary Fiber-Induced Improvement in Glucose Metabolism Is Associated with Increased Abundance of Prevotella. (2015, background): “Members of the Actinobacteria and Firmicutes phyla have been suggested to include species that are primary degraders of complex carbohydrates (Flint et al., 2012; El Kaoutari et al., 2013; Leitch et al., 2007; Ze et al., 2012), suggesting that Prevotella and Bacteroides may compete with those specie”
High-fat diet alters gut microbiota physiology in mice (2013, background): “In addition, we found that Ruminococcaceae (phylum Firmicutes) were decreased, which makes sense in light of the fact that ruminococci are major utilizers of plant polysaccharides, the amount of which is substantially decreased in HF diets (Flint et al., 2012; Ze et al., 2012).”
Resistant starch: promise for improving human health. (2013, background): “Why the 2 different resistant starches change the composition of the microbiota remains unclear, because multiple genera are capable of degrading the starches (86,121).”
The Effect of Probiotics on the Production of Short-Chain Fatty Acids by Human Intestinal Microbiome (2020, background): “There are four types of resistant starch (RS1–RS4) present in the human diet that are resistant to degradation in the small intestine [44,45].”
The Controversial Role of Human Gut Lachnospiraceae (2020, background): “On the other hand, Eubacterium eligens and Lachnospira pectinoschiza were identified as pectin-utilizing Lachnospiraceae species of the human gut [29].”
Phylogenetic distribution of three pathways for propionate production within the human gut microbiota (2014, background): “The human large intestine is inhabited by a diverse microbial community that influences host health through a number of mechanisms, including the production of metabolites, a barrier function against pathogens, and interactions with the host’s immune system and physiology (Flint et al., 2012b).”
Diet-Induced Dysbiosis of the Intestinal Microbiota and the Effects on Immunity and Disease (2012, background): “For example, members from the phyla Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Verrucomicrobium and Bacteroidetes can degrade complex carbohydrates not absorbed by the host [64] and can also inhibit the growth of opportunistic pathogens such as Clostridium spp.”
The Influence of Probiotics on the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes Ratio in the Treatment of Obesity and Inflammatory Bowel disease (2020, background): “Interestingly, certain Bacteroidetes species also possess a variety of genes for carbohydrate-degrading enzymes [38].”