How glycan metabolism shapes the human gut microbiota

By N. Koropatkin, E. Cameron, E. Martens. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 2012

1,310 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Symbiotic microorganisms that reside in the human intestine are adept at foraging glycans and polysaccharides, including those in dietary plants (starch, hemicellulose and pectin), animal-derived cartilage and tissue (glycosaminoglycans and N-linked glycans), and host mucus (O-linked glycans). Fluctuations in the abundance of dietary and endogenous glycans, combined with the immense chemical variation among these molecules, create a dynamic and heterogeneous environment in which gut microorganisms proliferate. In this Review, we describe how glycans shape the composition of the gut microbiota over various periods of time, the mechanisms by which individual microorganisms degrade these glycans, and potential opportunities to intentionally influence this ecosystem for better health and nutrition.

Subfields: Food Science, Molecular Biology, Nutrition and Dietetics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/fd96d36555cf1d7462f9d5d79a2de8d9fc96ebd7

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Citations in the corpus

Correlation between intraluminal oxygen gradient and radial partitioning of intestinal microbiota. (2014, background): “The protein source might be shedding of the intestinal epithelium into the mucus,(52) or the protein may come from the mucus itself because mucus is composed of glycoproteins.(2,52,53) The ability of saccharolytic bacteria to digest glycans in mucus(2,40) may help polypeptides to become more accessi”
Mucin glycan foraging in the human gut microbiome (2015, background): “Taken together, these findings suggest that the ability to forage on mucin glycans in the infant GI tract may contribute to the ability of gut bacteria species to establish early colonization (Koropatkin et al., 2012).”
Butyrate-producing Clostridium cluster XIVa species specifically colonize mucins in an in vitro gut model (2012, background): “Beneficial contributions of this microbiota to human health include the breakdown of otherwise indigestible food compounds (Koropatkin et al., 2012) and regulation of host metabolism (Backhed et al.”
The mucus and mucins of the goblet cells and enterocytes provide the first defense line of the gastrointestinal tract and interact with the immune system (2014, neutral): “Approximately one-third of the commensal microbiome is comprised of genes involved in carbohydrate digestion and many bacteria have specialized operons for different types of complex carbohydrates (45, 46).”
Chemical transformation of xenobiotics by the human gut microbiota (2017, background): “As much attention has been focused on microbial metabolism of complex, plant-derived polysaccharides (4, 50, 51), we have chosen to highlight transformations of noncarbohydrate dietary components.”
Dietary fiber and prebiotics and the gastrointestinal microbiota (2017, background): “, the ileam and ascending colon) while fibers that are less soluble, such as cellulose, can be partially fermented in the distal colon where transit time is slower, and bacterial densities are higher.(42) Recently, it was shown that fibers with varying chain lengths and solubility differentially imp”
How members of the human gut microbiota overcome the sulfation problem posed by glycosaminoglycans (2017, background): “A significant proportion of the complex carbohydrates available to the CM is mammalian in origin (4).”
Biological roles of glycans (2016, background): “Numerous pathogens generate a diverse array of cell surface and secreted glycosidases that serve to remodel or destroy the host glycocalyx, sometimes then utilizing the released monosaccharides as food sources and/or providing a nutritional resource for other microorganisms in the same milieu (783) ”
Starving our Microbial Self: The Deleterious Consequences of a Diet Deficient in Microbiota-Accessible Carbohydrates (2014, neutral): “Much of the carbon and energy for members of the microbiota originate from plant- and animal-derived dietary carbohydrates (Koropatkin et al., 2012; Salyers et al., 1977).”
Gut Bacteroides species in health and disease (2021, background): “takes place through the intestinal mucosa into the normally sterile tissues, eventually producing different disease conditions.(8) This translocation from the gut to extraintestinal locations in the body may be attributed to various factors: i) a compromised immune system, ii) gut barrier disruption”