Gut microbiota functions: metabolism of nutrients and other food components

By I. Rowland, G. Gibson, Almut Heinken, K. Scott, J. Swann, Ines Thiele, K. Tuohy. European Journal of Nutrition, 2017

2,315 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The diverse microbial community that inhabits the human gut has an extensive metabolic repertoire that is distinct from, but complements the activity of mammalian enzymes in the liver and gut mucosa and includes functions essential for host digestion. As such, the gut microbiota is a key factor in shaping the biochemical profile of the diet and, therefore, its impact on host health and disease. The important role that the gut microbiota appears to play in human metabolism and health has stimulated research into the identification of specific microorganisms involved in different processes, and the elucidation of metabolic pathways, particularly those associated with metabolism of dietary components and some host-generated substances. In the first part of the review, we discuss the main gut microorganisms, particularly bacteria, and microbial pathways associated with the metabolism of dietary carbohydrates (to short chain fatty acids and gases), proteins, plant polyphenols, bile acids, and vitamins. The second part of the review focuses on the methodologies, existing and novel, that can be employed to explore gut microbial pathways of metabolism. These include mathematical models, omics techniques, isolated microbes, and enzyme assays.

Subfields: Molecular Biology, Physiology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/fc73e595825869a9b5e3e048a8d9ad946f4d572d

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In Molecular Biology

1. H. Smidt
2. Ellen E. Blaak
3. Abdo Hassoun
4. C. Stanton
5. John Penders
6. M. Pateiro
7. Erwin G. Zoetendal

In Physiology

1. Ellen E. Blaak
2. H. Smidt
3. C. Stanton

Citations in the corpus

• Flavonoids as Anticancer Agents (2020, background): “Intestinal epithelium, besides nutrient absorption, provides a barrier controlling the entrance of microorganisms, their metabolic products and toxins as well as toxins present in ingested foods [194].”
• Impact of antibiotics on the human microbiome and consequences for host health (2022, background): “This type of dependency is also seen in many other bacterial groups (Heinken & Thiele, 2015; Rowland et al., 2018).”
• The Influence of Probiotics on the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes Ratio in the Treatment of Obesity and Inflammatory Bowel disease (2020, background): “The most abundant metabolic products of gut microbiota are short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), mainly acetate, propionate, and butyrate, which are produced by anaerobic fermentation of undigested carbohydrates [15].”
• Human gut microbiota in health and disease: Unveiling the relationship (2022, background): “Acetate helps in the growth of other bacteria as an essential co-factor; for example, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii will not grow in pure culture in the absence of acetate (Rowland et al., 2018).”
• Gut microbiome stability and resilience: elucidating the response to perturbations in order to modulate gut health (2020, background): “7 Furthermore, peristalsis is one of the greatest negative selection pressures in the gut, which removes millions of viable microbial cells, indicating that adhesion to human gut epithelium might be essential for the persistence in the environment.”