Zhao Yuanyuan, Aru Violetta, Wang Dan, Wang Pan, Qin Peiyou, Jiang Qianqian, Li Zudi, Engelsen Søren Balling, Zhao Xiaoyan
Institute of Agri-Food Processing and Nutrition, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing Key Laboratory of Agricultural Products of Fruits and Vegetables Preservation and Processing, Key Laboratory of Vegetable Postharvest Processing, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Beijing 100097, China.
Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg C 1958, Denmark.
Carbohydr Polym. 2025 Jul 15;360:123596. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2025.123596. Epub 2025 Apr 9.
Pectins are parts of fruits, vegetables and other plant-based foods in the human daily diet. They are resilient to gastric digestion but undergo fermentation primarily in the large intestine, peaking in the cecum. The depolymerization of the pectins induced by the gut microbiota generally facilitates the subsequent fermentation of sugar monomers, during which SCFAs are primarily generated to exert multiple beneficial functions. Given structural heterogeneity of pectins and intricate process of microbial metabolism, it is crucial to elucidate how the multi-scale structure of pectins impacts their gut fermentation behavior. This review delves into distinct structural domains and fine structural characteristics of pectins, describes their degradation mechanism and bioavailability in the gastrointestinal tract, and provides an overview of the associated pectinolytic enzymes, gut microbiota community, and microbial metabolites. Moreover, recent advances are summarized in the relationships between gut fermentability and various structural parameters of pectins, including molecular size, esterification degree, monosaccharides composition and molecular conformation. Furthermore, how the structural complexity of pectins influences the interplay between saccharolytic metabolism and proteolytic metabolism during microbial fermentation is proposed. This work would help to unravel the "pectin structure - gut microbiota - host health" interactions, thereby guiding the design of functional foods targeting specific microorganisms in future personalized diets.
果胶是人类日常饮食中水果、蔬菜和其他植物性食物的组成部分。它们对胃消化具有耐受性，但主要在大肠中进行发酵，在盲肠中达到峰值。肠道微生物群诱导的果胶解聚通常有助于随后糖单体的发酵，在此过程中主要产生短链脂肪酸以发挥多种有益功能。鉴于果胶的结构异质性和微生物代谢的复杂过程，阐明果胶的多尺度结构如何影响其肠道发酵行为至关重要。本综述深入探讨了果胶不同的结构域和精细结构特征，描述了它们在胃肠道中的降解机制和生物利用度，并概述了相关的果胶分解酶、肠道微生物群落和微生物代谢产物。此外，总结了肠道发酵能力与果胶各种结构参数之间的最新进展，包括分子大小、酯化程度、单糖组成和分子构象。此外，还提出了果胶的结构复杂性如何影响微生物发酵过程中糖分解代谢和蛋白水解代谢之间的相互作用。这项工作将有助于揭示“果胶结构-肠道微生物群-宿主健康”的相互作用，从而指导未来个性化饮食中针对特定微生物的功能性食品的设计。
