1. Diverse events have transferred genes for edible seaweed digestion from marine to human gut bacteria
- Author
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Nicholas A. Pudlo, Gabriel Vasconcelos Pereira, Jaagni Parnami, Melissa Cid, Stephanie Markert, Jeffrey P. Tingley, Frank Unfried, Ahmed Ali, Neha J. Varghese, Kwi S. Kim, Austin Campbell, Karthik Urs, Yao Xiao, Ryan Adams, Duña Martin, David N. Bolam, Dörte Becher, Emiley A. Eloe-Fadrosh, Thomas M. Schmidt, D. Wade Abbott, Thomas Schweder, Jan Hendrik Hehemann, and Eric C. Martens
- Subjects
human gut microbiome ,Bacteria ,Immunology ,Seaweed ,lateral gene transfer ,Microbiology ,Article ,Gastrointestinal Microbiome ,Polysaccharides ,Medical Microbiology ,Virology ,Humans ,Bacteroides ,Parasitology ,Digestion ,polysaccharide metabolism ,Life Below Water ,Nutrition - Abstract
Humans harbor numerous species of colonic bacteria that digest fiber polysaccharides in commonly consumed terrestrial plants. More recently in history, regional populations have consumed edible macroalgae seaweeds containing unique polysaccharides. It remains unclear how extensively gut bacteria have adapted to digest these nutrients. Here, we show that the ability of gut bacteria to digest seaweed polysaccharides is more pervasive than previously appreciated. Enrichment-cultured Bacteroides harbor previously discovered genes for seaweed degradation, which have mobilized into several members of this genus. Additionally, other examples of marine bacteria-derived genes, and their mobile DNA elements, are involved in gut microbial degradation of seaweed polysaccharides, including genes in gut-resident Firmicutes. Collectively, these results uncover multiple separate events that have mobilized the genes encoding seaweed degrading-enzymes into gut bacteria. This work further underscores the metabolic plasticity of the human gut microbiome and global exchange of genes in the context of dietary selective pressures.
- Published
- 2022