Diversity and distribution of sulfur metabolic genes in the human gut microbiome and their association with colorectal cancer.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Recent evidence implicates microbial sulfidogenesis as a potential trigger of colorectal cancer (CRC), highlighting the need for comprehensive knowledge of sulfur metabolism within the human gut. Microbial sulfidogenesis produces genotoxic hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) in the human colon using inorganic (sulfate) and organic (taurine/cysteine/methionine) substrates; however, the majority of studies have focused on sulfate reduction using dissimilatory sulfite reductases (Dsr).

Results

Here, we show that genes for microbial sulfur metabolism are more abundant and diverse than previously observed and are statistically associated with CRC. Using ~ 17,000 bacterial genomes from publicly available stool metagenomes, we studied the diversity of sulfur metabolic gene

SUBMITTER: Wolf PG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9016944 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature