Analysis of 3,000 human microbiomes and over 1,300 phytonutrients indicated that at least 775 plant compounds can be modified by gut bacteria
When scientists looked at the genomes of 59 different probiotics, they found that these strains were capable of biotransforming 525 of these 775 compounds
Digging deeper and focusing on the 186 phytonutrients in secondary-metabolism-related pathways, 116 were modified by both probiotic and gut microbial enzymes, while 70 were only associated with enzymes from gut microbes
Identification and isolation of the gut bacteria with specific beneficial properties based on their postbiotic capacity, or their role in these secondary-metabolism-related pathways, could inform the development of next-generation probiotics that are well adapted to the human gastrointestinal ecosystem, stated scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (Leibniz-HKI) in Jena, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, and The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability at the Technical University of Denmark.
“Our large-scale systematic mapping of dietary phytonutrients and gut microbiota shows that microbial enzymes may biotransform hundreds of phytonutrients,” they wrote in Nature Microbiology. “Notably, this metabolic potential varies between healthy and diseased states, underscoring the central role of gut microbiota in mediating health effects of diet
“This should open avenues for optimizing the nutritional value of plant-based diets through targeted microbial engineering and inform the development of next-generation probiotics, functional foods and personalized nutrition.”
The researchers also assessed the potential of gut bacterial species and probiotics with the maximal potential to modify those 186 nutrients and found that eight gut bacterial species or four probiotic strains could process over 95% of the phytonutrients
The four probiotic strains were Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM, Escherichia coli Nissle 1917, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum NCIMB88626, and Bifidobacterium breve BB02
The study also found substantial variation in phytonutrient-metabolizing capacity between individuals, geographic regions, and healthy versus diseased populations. Machine-learning models showed that microbiome enzyme profiles associated with phytonutrient metabolism could distinguish healthy individuals from those with various diseases, suggesting that altered microbial metabolism may contribute to differences in health outcomes.
The researchers then sought to validate these findings using specific-pathogen-free and germ-free mice fed strawberries and found that the berry’s full spectrum of anti-inflammatory benefits were indeed dependent on specific gut microbial enzymes
“Our findings also suggest strategies for developing functional foods. The potential of microbial foods, including fermented foods, to modulate human health through microbial metabolites is currently drawing interest,” wrote the researchers. “Here we demonstrated the possibility to obtain small assemblies of gut bacterial species with maximal ability to biotransform target sets of phytonutrients: for example, a set of 11 gut bacterial species that can largely drive the biotransformation of 43 secondary-metabolism-related metabolites from common edible plants (which known probiotics lack the genetic potential to perform).
“This suggests a new direction for developing functional foods through fermentation with selected bacterial species, identified
