Clostridium scindens: a human gut microbe with a high potential to convert glucocorticoids into androgens.

ABSTRACT: Clostridium scindens American Type Culture Collection 35704 is capable of converting primary bile acids to toxic secondary bile acids, as well as converting glucocorticoids to androgens by side-chain cleavage. The molecular structure of the side-chain cleavage product of cortisol produced by C. scindens was determined to be 11β-hydroxyandrost-4-ene-3,17-dione (11β-OHA) by high-resolution mass spectrometry, (1)H and (13)C NMR spectroscopy, and X-ray crystallography. Using RNA-Seq technology, we identified a cortisol-inducible (≈ 1,000-fold) operon (desABCD) encoding at least one enzyme involved in anaerobic side-chain cleavage. The desC gene was cloned, overexpressed, purified, and found to encode a 20α-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (HSDH). This operon also encodes a putative "transketolase"

SUBMITTER: Ridlon JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3735941 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature