Depolymerization of plant cell wall glycans by symbiotic human gut bacteria (Bacteroides ovatus)
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Symbiotic bacteria inhabiting the distal human gut have evolved under intense pressure to utilize complex carbohydrates, predominantly plant cell wall glycans abundant in our diets. These substrates are recalcitrant to depolymerization by digestive enzymes encoded in the human genome, but are efficiently targeted by some of the ~103-104 bacterial species that inhabit this niche. These species augment our comparatively narrow carbohydrate digestive capacity by unlocking otherwise unusable sugars and fermenting them into host-absorbable forms, such as short-chain fatty acids. We used phenotype profiling, whole-genome transcriptional analysis and molecular genetic approaches to investigate complex glycan utilization by two fully sequenced and closely related human gut symbionts: Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron and Bacteroides ovatus. Together these species target all of the common glycosidic linkages found in the plant cell wall, as well as host polysaccharides, but each species exhibits a unique ‘glycan niche’: in vitro B. thetaiotaomicron targets plant cell wall pectins in addition to linkages contained in host N- and O-glycans; B. ovatus uniquely targets hemicellulosic polysaccharides along with several pectins, but is deficient in host glycan utilization.
ORGANISM(S): Bacteroides sp. WH2 Bacteroides ovatus ATCC 8483 Dorea longicatena DSM 13814 Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron VPI-5482 Blautia obeum ATCC 29174 Bacteroides caccae ATCC 43185 Bacteroides ovatus Collinsella aerofaciens ATCC 25986 Phocaeicola vulgatus ATCC 8482 [Ruminococcus] torques ATCC 27756 [Clostridium] scindens ATCC 35704 Parabacteroides distasonis ATCC 8503 Agathobacter rectalis ATCC 33656 Thomasclavelia spiroformis DSM 1552 Bacteroides uniformis ATCC 8492 Faecalibacterium prausnitzii M21/2
PROVIDER: GSE25575 | GEO | 2011/05/01
SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA142411
REPOSITORIES: GEO
ACCESS DATA