Yao Tianming, Libera Laura, Lindemann Stephen R
Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research, Department of Food Science, Purdue University, 745 Agriculture Mall Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA; Department of Food Science, Rutgers University, 65 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA.
Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research, Department of Food Science, Purdue University, 745 Agriculture Mall Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
Food Res Int. 2025 Oct;217:116709. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2025.116709. Epub 2025 May 28.
Dietary fibers are generally considered to have strong impacts on governing ecological dynamics in gut microbial communities and metabolites. However, the extent to which the ecological modification capabilities of complex polysaccharides are enhanced by the presence of fermenting microbial specialists remains underexplored. Our prior study demonstrated that sorghum arabinoxylan (AX), a complex fiber with diverse glycosidic linkages, could offer unique ecological niches to sustain a stable consortium of organisms in vitro. In this study, the synergistic effect of AX and its specialist consortium was investigated using murine model and emphasized on their collective effects on gut microbiome modulation, specifically in improving the resilience after the exposure to antibiotics. We hypothesized that 1) continuous fiber intake aids in the engraftment of the specialist microbes to remodel the target host gut, and 2) the combined effect of fiber administration and the delivery of fiber-specific organisms has a pronounced ecological modulatory effect, especially in restoring a functional microbiome disrupted by antibiotic treatment. We found that while the cross-host consortium engraftment achieved modest success; the presence of specialist consortium-either independently or in combination with AX-facilitated swift shifts in fecal microbiota composition. In addition, the administration of AX and the fermenting consortium in antibiotic-treated groups resulted in a more rapid recovery of murine native microbiome over the fiber treatment alone, indicating that gut function recovery may be facilitated by transitory microbiota that perform ecosystem engineering roles. Overall, strategically pairing ecological niches (complex polysaccharides) with their corresponding specialist microbes offers a practical approach to effectively modify the gut ecosystem, thereby overcoming adverse conditions, enhancing stability and resilience.
膳食纤维通常被认为对肠道微生物群落和代谢产物的生态动力学具有重大影响。然而，发酵微生物专家的存在对复杂多糖生态调节能力的增强程度仍未得到充分探索。我们之前的研究表明，高粱阿拉伯木聚糖（AX）是一种具有多种糖苷键的复杂纤维，能够提供独特的生态位，以在体外维持稳定的生物群落。在本研究中，使用小鼠模型研究了AX及其专家菌群的协同效应，并着重探讨了它们对肠道微生物群调节的集体作用，特别是在提高抗生素暴露后的恢复力方面。我们假设：1）持续摄入纤维有助于专家微生物的植入，从而重塑目标宿主的肠道；2）纤维给药与纤维特异性生物的递送相结合具有显著的生态调节作用，尤其是在恢复因抗生素治疗而破坏的功能性微生物群方面。我们发现，虽然跨宿主菌群植入取得了一定成功；但专家菌群的存在——无论是单独存在还是与AX联合存在——都促进了粪便微生物群组成的快速变化。此外，在抗生素治疗组中同时给予AX和发酵菌群，与单独使用纤维治疗相比，小鼠原生微生物群的恢复更快，这表明执行生态系统工程功能的短暂微生物群可能有助于肠道功能的恢复。总体而言，将生态位（复杂多糖）与其相应的专家微生物进行策略性配对，为有效改变肠道生态系统提供了一种实用方法，从而克服不利条件，增强稳定性和恢复力。
