Ruminococcus torques is a keystone degrader of intestinal mucin glycoprotein, releasing oligosaccharides used by Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron.

ABSTRACT: Symbiotic interactions between humans and our communities of resident gut microbes (microbiota) play many roles in health and disease. Some gut bacteria utilize mucus as a nutrient source and can under certain conditions damage the protective barrier it forms, increasing disease susceptibility. We investigated how Ruminococcus torques-a known mucin degrader that has been implicated in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs)-degrades mucin glycoproteins or their component O-linked glycans to understand its effects on the availability of mucin-derived nutrients for other bacteria. We found that R. torques utilizes both mucin glycoproteins and released oligosaccharides from gastric and colonic mucins, degrading these substrates with a panoply of mostly constitutively expressed

SUBMITTER: Schaus SR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11323728 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature