The human microbiome functions as a separate organ in a symbiotic relationship with the host. Disruption of this host–microbe symbiosis can lead to serious health problems. Modifications to the composition and function of the microbiome have been linked to changes in host metabolic outcomes. Industrial lifestyles with high consumption of processed foods, alcoholic beverages and antibiotic use have significantly altered the gut microbiome in unfavorable ways. Therefore, understanding the causal relationship between the human microbiome and host metabolism will provide important insights into how we can better intervene in metabolic health. In this review, I will discuss the potential use of the human microbiome as a therapeutic target to improve host metabolism.

Gastropod molluscs such as Aplysia , Lymnaea , and Tritonia have been important for determining fundamental rules of motor control, learning, and memory because of their large, individually identifiable neurons. Yet for the vast majority of gastropod neurons, as well as glia, there are no established molecular markers, limiting the ability to establish brain-wide structure-function relations. Here we combine high-throughput, single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) with in-situ hybridization chain reaction (HCR) in the nudibranch Berghia stephanieae to identify and visualize the expression of markers for cell types. Broad neuronal classes were characterized by genes associated with neurotransmitters, like acetylcholine, glutamate, serotonin, and GABA, as well as neuropeptides. These classes were subdivided by other genes including transcriptional regulators and unannotated genes. Marker genes expressed by neurons and glia formed discrete, previously unrecognized regions within and between ganglia. This study provides the foundation for understanding the fundamental cellular organization of gastropod nervous systems.

Background:There is growing interest in the development of next-generation probiotics to prevent or treat metabolic syndrome. Previous studies suggested that Anaerobutyricum soehngenii may represent a promising probiotic candidate. A recent human study showed that while A. soehngenii supplementation is well tolerated and safe, it resulted in variable responses among individuals with a subset of the subjects significantly benefiting from the treatment. We hypothesized that gut microbiome variation is linked to the heterogeneous responses to A. soehngenii treatment observed in humans. Results:We colonized germ-free mice with fecal microbiota from human subjects that responded to A. soehngenii treatment (R65 and R55) and non-responder subjects (N96 and N40). Colonized mice were fed a high-fat diet (45% kcal from fat) to induce insulin resistance, and orally treated with either live A. soehngenii culture or heat-killed culture. We found that R65-colonized mice received a benefit in glycemic control with live A. soehngenii treatment while mice colonized with microbiota from the other donors did not. The glucose homeostasis improvements observed in R65-colonized mice were positively correlated with levels of cecal propionate, an association that was reversed in N40-colonized mice. To test whether the microbiome modulates the effects of propionate, R65- or N40-colonized mice were treated with tripropionin (TP, glycerol tripropionate), a pro-drug of propionate, or glycerol (control). TP supplementation showed a similar response pattern as that observed in live A. soehngenii treatment, suggesting that propionate may mediate the effects of A. soehngenii. We also found that TP supplementation to conventional mice reduces adiposity, improves glycemic control, and reduces plasma insulin compared to control animals supplemented with glycerol. Conclusions:These findings highlight the importance of the microbiome on glycemic control and underscore the need to better understand personal microbiome-by-therapeutic interactions to develop more effective treatment strategies.

SummaryEubacterium maltosivorans YIT is a human intestinal isolate capable of acetogenic, propionogenic and butyrogenic growth. Its 4.3‐Mb genome sequence contains coding sequences for 4227 proteins, including 41 different methyltransferases. Comparative proteomics of strain YIT showed the Wood–Ljungdahl pathway proteins to be actively produced during homoacetogenic growth on H2 and CO2 while butyrogenic growth on a mixture of lactate and acetate significantly upregulated the production of proteins encoded by the recently identified lctABCDEF cluster and accessory proteins. Growth on H2 and CO2 unexpectedly induced the production of two related trimethylamine methyltransferases. Moreover, a set of 16 different trimethylamine methyltransferases together with proteins for bacterial microcompartments were produced during growth and deamination of the quaternary amines, betaine, carnitine and choline. Growth of strain YIT on 1,2‐propanediol generated propionate with propanol and induced the formation of bacterial microcompartments that were also prominently visible in betaine‐grown cells. The present study demonstrates that E. maltosivorans is highly versatile in converting low‐energy fermentation end‐products in the human gut into butyrate and propionate whilst being capable of preventing the formation of the undesired trimethylamine by converting betaine and other quaternary amines in bacterial microcompartments into acetate and butyrate.

Abstract We investigated the impact of dried chicory root in a randomised, placebo-controlled trial with 55 subjects at risk for type 2 diabetes on bowel function, gut microbiota and its products, and glucose homeostasis. The treatment increased stool softness (+1.1 ± 0.3 units; p = 0.034) and frequency (+0.6 ± 0.2 defecations/day; p < 0.001), strongly modulated gut microbiota composition (7 % variation; p = 0.001), and dramatically increased relative levels (3-4-fold) of Anaerostipes and Bifidobacterium spp., in a dose-dependent, reversible manner. A synthetic community, including selected members of these genera and a Bacteroides strain, generated a butyrogenic trophic chain from the product. Faecal acetate, propionate and butyrate increased by 25.8 % (+13.0 ± 6.3 mmol/kg; p = 0.023) as did their fasting circulating levels by 15.7 % (+7.7 ± 3.9 μM; p = 0.057). In the treatment group the glycaemic coefficient of variation decreased from 21.3 ± 0.94 to 18.3 ± 0.84 % (p = 0.004), whereas fasting glucose and HOMA-ir decreased in subjects with low baseline Blautia levels (−0.3 ± 0.1 mmol/L fasting glucose; p = 0.0187; −0.14 ± 0.1 HOMA-ir; p = 0.045). Dried chicory root intake rapidly and reversibly affects bowel function, benefits butyrogenic trophic chains, and promotes glycaemic control.

Background Akkermansia muciniphila is a human gut microbe with a key role in the physiology of the intestinal mucus layer and reported associations with decreased body mass and increased gut barrier function and health. Despite its biomedical relevance, the genomic diversity of A. muciniphila remains understudied and that of closely related species, except for A. glycaniphila, unexplored. Results We present a large-scale population genomics analysis of the Akkermansia genus using 188 isolate genomes and 2226 genomes assembled from 18,600 metagenomes from humans and other animals. While we do not detect A. glycaniphila, the Akkermansia strains in the human gut can be grouped into five distinct candidate species, including A. muciniphila, that show remarkable whole-genome divergence despite surprisingly similar 16S rRNA gene sequences. These candidate species are likely human-specific, as they are detected in mice and non-human primates almost exclusively when kept in captivity. In humans, Akkermansia candidate species display ecological co-exclusion, diversified functional capabilities, and distinct patterns of associations with host body mass. Analysis of CRISPR-Cas loci reveals new variants and spacers targeting newly discovered putative bacteriophages. Remarkably, we observe an increased relative abundance of Akkermansia when cognate predicted bacteriophages are present, suggesting ecological interactions. A. muciniphila further exhibits subspecies-level genetic stratification with associated functional differences such as a putative exo/lipopolysaccharide operon. Conclusions We uncover a large phylogenetic and functional diversity of the Akkermansia genus in humans. This variability should be considered in the ongoing experimental and metagenomic efforts to characterize the health-associated properties of A. muciniphila and related bacteria.

Our gastrointestinal tract is host to a wide variety of bacteria, together referred to as the microbiota. These bacteria influence our health and well-being through many different mechanisms. Most of these effects are the result of metabolites that are being produced by these bacteria or through triggering the expression of metabolites by the host. In this chapter we will highlight two bacterial species that have remarkable metabolic features that make them prime candidates for the development as next-generation probiotics. The first is Eubacterium hallii, a bacterium that is capable of producing two important short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), propionate and butyrate. The other bacterium is Intestinimonas butyriciproducens, a bacterium that is capable of producing butyrate from not only sugars but also lysine and even glycated lysine. Both species also can produce pseudovitamin B12. We will discuss conditions that can result in the production of specific metabolites and the implications this can have on human health.

The human gut microbiota has appeared as an important factor affecting host health and intestinal bacteria have recently emerged as potential therapeutics to treat diabetes and other endocrine diseases. These mainly anaerobic bacteria have been identified either via comparative "omics" analysis of the intestinal microbiota in healthy and diseased subjects or of data collected by fecal microbiota transplantation studies. Both approaches require advanced and in-depth sequencing technologies to perform massive genomic screening to select bacteria with potential benefits. It has been shown that these potentially therapeutic bacteria can either produce bioactive products that directly influence the host patho-physiology and endocrine systems or produce specific signaling molecules that may do so. These bioactive compounds can be formed via degradation of dietary or host-derived components or the conversion of intermediate compounds produced by fermentation of intestinal bacteria. Several of these bacteria have shown causality in preclinical models and entered clinical phase studies, while their mode of action is being analyzed. In this review, we summarize the research on the most promising bacterial candidates with therapeutic properties with a specific focus on diabetes.

We describe the anaerobic conversion of inositol stereoisomers to propionate and acetate by the abundant intestinal genus Anaerostipes . A inositol pathway was elucidated by nuclear magnetic resonance using [ 13 C]-inositols, mass spectrometry and proteogenomic analyses in A. rhamnosivorans , identifying 3-oxoacid CoA transferase as a key enzyme involved in both 3-oxopropionyl-CoA and propionate formation. This pathway also allowed conversion of phytate-derived inositol into propionate as shown with [ 13 C]-phytate in fecal samples amended with A. rhamnosivorans . Metabolic and (meta)genomic analyses explained the adaptation of Anaerostipes spp. to inositol-containing substrates and identified a propionate-production gene cluster to be inversely associated with metabolic biomarkers in (pre)diabetes cohorts. Co-administration of myo-inositol with live A. rhamnosivorans in western-diet fed mice reduced fasting-glucose levels comparing to heat-killed A. rhamnosivorans after 6-weeks treatment. Altogether, these data suggest a potential beneficial role for intestinal Anaerostipes spp. in promoting host health.

Our study aim is to investigate the role of Intestinimonas, Nε-fructosyllysine (FL)-degrading bacterium, in infants and adults. We used lysine and subsequently FL in anaerobic serial dilutions of stools of infants and adults to enrich lysine and FL-degrading species. The fecal microbiota of adults were able to ferment lysine and FL to butyrate. Different groups of Intestinimonas spp. were detected from all lysine enrichments whereas the FL enrichments consisted of broader taxonomic groups with a reduced abundance of Intestinimonas-related species. Remarkably, the capability to degrade FL was only observed in formula-fed but not in breast-fed infants, which may relate to high contents of FL in formulas after thermal treatment. This possibility was supported by analyzing metagenomic datasets of 3-month and 4-month infants. Our data indicate the key role of Intestinimonas-like bacteria in FL degradation in formula-fed infants and adults as a profound example of adaptation of intestinal bacteria to dietary components.

Summary The d‐ and l‐forms of lactate are important fermentation metabolites produced by intestinal bacteria but are found to negatively affect mucosal barrier function and human health. Both enantiomers of lactate can be converted with acetate into the presumed beneficial butyrate by a phylogenetically related group of anaerobes, including Anaerobutyricum and Anaerostipes spp. This is a low energy yielding process with a partially unknown pathway in Anaerobutyricum and Anaerostipes spp. and hence, we sought to address this via a comparative genomics, proteomics and physiology approach. We compared growth of Anaerobutyricum soehngenii on lactate with that on sucrose and sorbitol. Comparative proteomics revealed complete pathway of butyrate formation from sucrose, sorbitol and lactate. Notably, a gene cluster, lctABCDEF was abundantly expressed when grown on lactate. This gene cluster encodes a lactate dehydrogenase (lctD), electron transport proteins A and B (lctCB), nickel‐dependent racemase (lctE), lactate permease (lctF) and short‐chain acyl‐CoA dehydrogenase (lctG). Investigation of available genomes of intestinal bacteria revealed this new gene cluster to be highly conserved in only Anaerobutyricum and Anaerostipes spp. Present study demonstrates that A. soehngenii and several related Anaerobutyricum and Anaerostipes spp. are highly adapted for a lifestyle involving lactate plus acetate utilization in the human intestinal tract.

Modifications of lysine contribute to the amount of dietary advanced glycation end-products reaching the colon. However, little is known about the ability of intestinal bacteria to metabolize dietary N-ε-carboxymethyllysine (CML). Successive transfers of fecal microbiota in growth media containing CML were used to identify and isolate species able to metabolize CML under anaerobic conditions. From our study, only donors exposed to processed foods degraded CML, and anaerobic bacteria enrichments from two of them used 77 and 100% of CML. Oscillibacter and Cloacibacillus evryensis increased in the two donors after the second transfer, highlighting that the bacteria from these taxa could be candidates for anaerobic CML degradation. A tentative identification of CML metabolites produced by a pure culture of Cloacibacillus evryensis was performed by mass spectrometry: carboxymethylated biogenic amines and carboxylic acids were identified as CML degradation products. The study confirmed the ability of intestinal bacteria to metabolize CML under anoxic conditions.

The human intestinal tract harbors diverse and complex microbial communities that have a vast metabolic capacity including the breakdown of complex carbohydrates into short chain fatty acids, acetate, propionate, and butyrate. As butyrate is beneficial for gut health there is much attention on butyrogenic bacteria and their role in the colonic anaerobic food chain. However, our understanding how production of butyrate by gut microorganisms is controlled by interactions between different species and environmental nutrient availability is very limited. To address this, we set up experimental in vitro co-culture systems to study the metabolic interactions of Anaerostipes rhamnosivorans, a butyrate producer with each of its partners; Blautia hydrogenotrophica, an acetogen; Methanobrevibacter smithii, a methanogen and Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, a versatile degrader of plant cell wall pectins; through corresponding specific cross-feeding. In all co-cultures, A. rhamnosivorans was able to benefit from its partner for enhanced butyrate formation compared to monocultures. Interspecies transfer of hydrogen or formate from A. rhamnosivorans to the acetogen B. hydrogenotrophica and in turn of acetate from the acetogen to the butyrogen were essential for butyrate formation. A. rhamnosivorans grown on glucose supported growth of M. smithii via interspecies formate/hydrogen transfer enhancing butyrate formation. In the co-culture with pectin, lactate was released by B. thetaiotaomicron which was concomitantly used by A. rhamnosivorans for the production of butyrate. Our findings indicate enhanced butyrate formation through microbe-microbe interactions between A. rhamnosivorans and an acetogen, a methanogen or a pectin-degrader. Such microbial interactions enhancing butyrate formation may be beneficial for colonic health.

Abstract In.tes.ti.ni.mo'nas. L. neut. n. intestinum , gut, intestine; L. fem. n. monas , a monad, unit; N.L. fem. n. Intestinimonas , a unit (bacterium) isolated from the intestine. Firmicutes / Clostridia / Clostridiales / Ruminococcaceae / Intestinimonas Gram‐positive, strictly anaerobic bacteria, chemoorganotrophic. Grow in a temperature range of 25–45°C, are straight fusiform rods. I. butyriciproducens forms terminal spores. Motility has not been observed. The major fermentation products in Wilkins–Chalgren anaerobe (WCA) broth are butyrate and acetate. Growth on hexose sugars is enhanced by addition of acetate. The cellular fatty acids are mostly saturated (91.9%), including C 14 :0 methyl ester (33.1%) and C 18 :0 dimethyl acetal (23.0%) as the two major fatty acids. Respiratory quinones have not been detected. Comparative analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that members of the genus Intestinimonas share less than 95% similarity with their closest cultured relatives Flavonifractor plautii and Pseudoflavonifractor capillosus and fall within Clostridium Cluster IV. The type strain was isolated from the cecal content of a mouse; other members were isolated from the intestinal tract of humans. DNA G + C content (mol%) of Intestinimonas butyriciproducens : 58.4 (based on HPLC) and 59.4 (based on genome sequence). Type species : Intestinimonas butyriciproducens SRB‐521 T . Kläring, Hanske, Bui, Charrier, Blaut, Haller, et al. 2013, 4611 VP .

A bacterial strain designated L2-7T, phylogenetically related to Eubacterium hallii DSM 3353T, was previously isolated from infant faeces. The complete genome of strain L2-7T contains eight copies of the 16S rRNA gene with only 98.0–98.5 % similarity to the 16S rRNA gene of the previously described type strain E. hallii . The next closest validly described species is Anaerostipes hadrus DSM 3319T (90.7 % 16S rRNA gene similarity). A polyphasic taxonomic approach showed strain L2-7T to be a novel species, related to type strain E. hallii DSM 3353T. The experimentally observed DNA–DNA hybridization value between strain L2-7T and E. hallii DSM 3353T was 26.25 %, close to that calculated from the genomes (34.3 %). The G+C content of the chromosomal DNA of strain L2-7T was 38.6 mol%. The major fatty acids were C16 : 0, C16 : 1 cis9 and a component with summed feature 10 (C18 : 1c11/t9/t6c). Strain L2-7T had higher amounts of C16 : 0 (30.6 %) compared to E. hallii DSM 3353T (19.5 %) and its membrane contained phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine, which were not detected in E. hallii DSM 3353T. Furthermore, 16S rRNA gene phylogenetic analysis advocates that E. hallii DSM 3353T is misclassified, and its reclassification as a member of the family Lachnospiraceae is necessary. Using a polyphasic approach, we propose that E. hallii (=DSM 3353T=ATCC 27751T) be reclassified as the type strain of a novel genus Anaerobutyricum sp. nov., comb. nov. and we propose that strain L2-7T should be classified as a novel species, Anaerobutyricum soehngenii sp. nov. The type strain is L2-7T (=DSM 17630T=KCTC 15707T).

The human intestinal tract harbours a trillion on microbial cells, predominantly anaerobes. The activity and physiology of these anaerobes is strongly associated with health and disease. This association has been investigated for a long time.However, this has not been fully understood. One of the reasons is the limited availability of cultured representatives. It is estimated that there may be more than 3000 species colonised in the gut of healthy individuals, however, only a bit over 1000 species have been isolated and characterised. Among the intestinal microbes, butyrate-producing bacteria are of special interest as the butyrate produced, is crucial to maintain a healthy gut. In addition, butyrate-producing bacteria have shown a reverse correlation with several intestinal diseases. In Chapter 2 we described a novel species Anaerostipes rhamnosivorans 1y2T isolated from an infant stool. This strain belonged to genus Anaerostipes within Clostridium cluster XIVa. A. rhamnosivorans had a capability of converting rhamnose into butyrate that is unique within intestinal butyrate-producing bacteria. The genomic analysis also revealed the entire rhamnose fermentation pathway as well as the acetyl-CoA pathway for butyrate production. This bacterium is able to produce butyrate from a wide range of sugars as well as lactate plus acetate. In Chapter 3 , we described the microbial interactions between A. rhamnosivorans and Bacteriodes thetaiotaomicron in dietary pectins; Blautia hydrogenotrophica in lactate and small amount of acetate; Methanobrevibacter smithii in glucose. We observed that A. rhamnosivorans was able to benefit from its partners in all cocultures for butyrate production. This is likely due to its high metabolic flexibility. While the interaction between A. rhamnosivorans and B. thetaiotaomicron appeared as syntrophy, the interaction between A. rhamnosivorans and hydrogenotrohic microbes were cross-feeding type where hydrogen was transferred between two species. The latter resulted in an increase in butyrate level. In Chapter 4 we described a novel species Intestinimonas butyriciproducens SRB521T representing a novel genus Intestinimonas from a mouse caecum within Clostridium cluster IV. This bacterium produced butyrate and acetate as end products from Wilkins-Chalgren-Anaerobe broth. Butyrate production is assumed to derive from carbohydrate employing acetyl-CoA pathway. No gut bacterium is known to convert proteins or amino acids to butyrate although butyrogenic pathways from amino acid degradation have been detected in the human gut using metagenomic approach. In Chapter 5 we discovered a novel butyrate synthesis pathway from the amino acid lysine and the Amadori product fructoselysine in Intestinimonas butyriciproducens AF211 that was isolated from human stool. This strain appeared to grow much better in lysine as compared to sugars although lysine and acetyl-CoA pathways were both detected in its complete genome. Moreover, the strain AF211 was able to metabolise efficiently fructoselysine into butyrate, and acetate was found to affect the fructoselysine fermentation, representing the impact of the environmental conditions where acetate is abundant in the gut. While the lysine pathway was found in the gut of many individuals, the fructoselysine pathway was present in only half of those samples. The finding that strain I. butyriciproducens AF211 is capable of the butyrogenic conversion of amino acid lysine and fructoselysine, an Amadori product formed in heated foods via the Maillard reaction, indicated a missing link that coupling protein metabolism and butyrate formation. As this Amadori product has been implicated to play a role in aging process, the use of strain AF211 as fructoselysine clearance in the gut needs further investigation. In Chapter 6 we performed genomic and physiological comparison between the I. butyriciproducens strain AF211 (human isolate) and SRB521T (mouse isolate). I. butyriciproducens was the most abundant species within the Intestinimonas genus and highly prevalent in humans based on metadata analysis on 16S amplicons. We confirmed that the butyrogenesis from lysine was a shared characteristic between the two I. butyriciproducens strains. We also observed the host specific features including tolerance to bile, cellular fatty acid composition, more efficient capability of converting sugars into butyrate, especially galactose and arabinose, in the human strain AF211. In addition, genomic rearrangements as well as variations in bacteriophages differed among strains.

Intestinimonas is a newly described bacterial genus with representative strains present in the intestinal tract of human and other animals. Despite unique metabolic features including the production of butyrate from both sugars and amino acids, there is to date no data on their diversity, ecology, and physiology. Using a comprehensive phylogenetic approach, Intestinimomas was found to include at least three species that colonize primarily the human and mouse intestine. We focused on the most common and cultivable species of the genus, Intestinimonas butyriciproducens, and performed detailed genomic and physiological comparison of strains SRB521T and AF211, isolated from the mouse and human gut respectively. The complete 3.3-Mb genomic sequences of both strains were highly similar with 98.8% average nucleotide identity, testifying to their assignment to one single species. However, thorough analysis revealed significant genomic rearrangements, variations in phage-derived sequences, and the presence of new CRISPR sequences in both strains. Moreover, strain AF211 appeared to be more efficient than strain SRB521T in the conversion of the sugars arabinose and galactose. In conclusion, this study provides genomic and physiological insight into Intestinimonas butyriciproducens, a prevalent butyrate-producing species, differentiating strains that originate from the mouse and human gut.

Nature Microbiology 1, 16131 (2016); published 8 August 2016; corrected 17 October 2016 In the original version of this paper, several of the bacterial genus and species names were incorrect or incompatible with formal taxonomic validation and have had to be modified. The relevant names and descriptions have been amended in all versions of the Article.