Depolymerization of plant cell wall glycans by symbiotic human gut bacteria (Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron)

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 t

ORGANISM(S): Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron

SUBMITTER: Eric Martens 

PROVIDER: E-GEOD-25572 | biostudies-arrayexpress |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress