Large Quantities of Bacterial DNA and Protein in Common Dietary Protein Source Used in Microbiome Studies.

ABSTRACT: Diet has been shown to greatly impact the intestinal microbiota. To understand the role of individual dietary components, defined diets with purified components are frequently used in diet-microbiota studies. Defined diets frequently use purified casein as the protein source. Previous work indicated that casein contains microbial DNA potentially impacting results of microbiome studies. Other diet-based microbially derived molecules that may impact microbiome measurements, such as proteins detected by metaproteomics, have not been determined for casein. Additionally, other protein sources used in microbiome studies have not been characterized for their microbial content. We used metagenomics and metaproteomics to identify and quantify microbial DNA and protein in a casein-based defined diet

SUBMITTER: Bartlett A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12353559 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature