Enterotype-Specific Effect of Human Gut Microbiota on the Fermentation of Marine Algae Oligosaccharides: A Preliminary Proof-of-Concept In Vitro Study

• Published in: Polymers Vol. 14; no. 4; p. 770
• Main Authors: Fu, Tianyu, Zhou, Luning, Fu, Zhiliang, Zhang, Bin, Li, Quancai, Pan, Lin, Zhou, Chen, Zhao, Qing, Shang, Qingsen, Yu, Guangli
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 16-02-2022; MDPI
• Subjects: agar oligosaccharides; Algae; alginate oligosaccharides; Bacteria; Carbohydrates; Carrageenan; carrageenan oligosaccharides; Discriminant analysis; enterotype; Fatty acids; Fermentation; gut microbiota; marine algae oligosaccharides; Metabolism; Microbiota; Oligosaccharides; Prebiotics; carrageenan oligosaccharides; agar oligosaccharides; fermentation; marine algae oligosaccharides; prebiotics; alginate oligosaccharides; enterotype; gut microbiota
• ISSN: 2073-4360; 2073-4360
• DOI: 10.3390/polym14040770

The human gut microbiota plays a critical role in the metabolism of dietary carbohydrates. Previous studies have illustrated that marine algae oligosaccharides could be utilized and readily fermented by human gut microbiota. However, the human gut microbiota is classified into three different enterotypes, and how this may affect the fermentation processes of marine algae oligosaccharides has not been studied. Here, using in vitro fermentation and 16 S high-throughput sequencing techniques, we demonstrate that the human gut microbiota has an enterotype-specific effect on the fermentation outcomes of marine algae oligosaccharides. Notably, microbiota with a
enterotype was more proficient at fermenting carrageenan oligosaccharides (KOS) as compared to that with a
enterotype and that with an
enterotype. Interestingly, the prebiotic effects of marine algae oligosaccharides were also found to be enterotype dependent. Altogether, our study demonstrates an enterotype-specific effect of human gut microbiota on the fermentation of marine algae oligosaccharides. However, due to the availability of the fecal samples, only one sample was used to represent each enterotype. Therefore, our research is a proof-of-concept study, and we anticipate that more detailed studies with larger sample sizes could be conducted to further explore the enterotype-specific prebiotic effects of marine oligosaccharides.