Dietary fatty acids control the species of N-acyl-phosphatidylethanolamines synthesized by therapeutically modified bacteria in the intestinal tract

Engineering the gut microbiota to produce specific beneficial metabolites represents an important new potential strategy for treating chronic diseases. Our previous studies with bacteria engineered to produce N-acyl-phosphatidylethanolamines (NAPEs), the immediate precursors of the lipid satiety factors N-acyl-ethanolamides (NAEs), found that colonization of these bacteria inhibited development of obesity in C57BL/6J mice fed a high fat diet. Individual NAE species differ in their bioactivities. Intriguingly, colonization by our engineered bacteria resulted in increased hepatic N-stearoyl-ethanolamide (C18:0NAE) levels despite the apparent inability of these bacteria to biosynthesize its precursor N-stearoyl-phosphatidylethanolamine (C18:0NAPE) in vitro. We therefore sought to identify the factors that allowed C18:0NAPE biosynthesis by the engineered bacteria after colonization of the intestinal tract. We found that the species of NAPE biosynthesized by engineered bacteria depends on the species of dietary fatty acids available in the intestine, suggesting a simple method to fine-tune the therapeutic effects of modified microbiota.