Uncovering the trimethylamine-producing bacteria of the human gut microbiota.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Trimethylamine (TMA), produced by the gut microbiota from dietary quaternary amines (mainly choline and carnitine), is associated with atherosclerosis and severe cardiovascular disease. Currently, little information on the composition of TMA producers in the gut is available due to their low abundance and the requirement of specific functional-based detection methods as many taxa show disparate abilities to produce that compound.

Results

In order to examine the TMA-forming potential of microbial communities, we established databases for the key genes of the main TMA-synthesis pathways, encoding choline TMA-lyase (cutC) and carnitine oxygenase (cntA), using a multi-level screening approach on 67,134 genomes revealing 1107 and 6738 candidates to exhibit cutC and cnt

SUBMITTER: Rath S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5433236 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature