Acetate Utilization and Butyryl Coenzyme A (CoA):Acetate-CoA Transferase in Butyrate-Producing Bacteria from the Human Large Intestine

Abstract

Seven strains of Roseburia sp., Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, and Coprococcus sp. from the human gut that produce high levels of butyric acid in vitro were studied with respect to key butyrate pathway enzymes and fermentation patterns. Strains of Roseburia sp. and F. prausnitzii possessed butyryl coenzyme A (CoA):acetateCoA transferase and acetate kinase activities, but butyrate kinase activity was not detectable either in growing or in stationary-phase cultures. Although unable to use acetate as a sole source of energy, these strains showed net utilization of acetate during growth on glucose. In contrast, Coprococcus sp. strain L2-50 is a net producer of acetate and possessed detectable butyrate kinase, acetate kinase, and butyryl-CoA:acetate-CoA transferase activities. These results demonstrate that different functionally distinct groups of butyrate-producing bacteria are present in the human large intestine.

Cryopreservation of artificial gut microbiota produced with in vitro fermentation technology

“…However, such fermentations allow investigation of bacterial viability and activity of the inoculum in a controlled and reproducible way. Modified Macfarlane medium contains a mix of SCFA to initiate growth of butyrate‐producing bacteria such as F. prausnitzii and R. intestinalis (Duncan et al ., 2002a), as well as complex glycans, which provides fuel for, and can be degraded by, trophic interactions of the gut microbiota. All three investigated butyrate producers grew in batch cultures, as indicated by qPCR data.…”

“…Thus, the medium was supplemented with a SCFA mix (Duncan et al ., 2002a), and its buffer capacity was enhanced twofold by increasing the amount of KH 2 PO 4 and NaHCO 3 . The medium composition (g l −1 ) was as follows: 1.0 cellobiose, 1.0 xylan, 1.0 arabinogalactan, 0.5 inulin, 1.0 soluble potato starch, 3.0 casein acid hydrolysate, 5.0 bacto™ tryptone, 1.5 meat extract, 4.5 yeast extract, 4.0 mucin, 0.4 bile salt, 0.05 hemin, 0.61 MgSO 4 , 0.1 CaCl 2 ∙2H 2 O, 0.2 MnCl 2 ∙4H 2 O, 0.005 FeSO 4 ∙7H 2 O, 0.1 ZnSO 4 ∙7H 2 O, 2.0 KH 2 PO 4 , 6.0 NaHCO 3 , 4.5 NaCl and 4.5 KCl.…”

Rumen chemical and bacterial changes during stepwise adaptation to a high-concentrate diet in goats

“…Interestingly, one of the three bands is closely related to the bacteria Roseburia faecalis. This species possesses butyryl coenzyme A (CoA): acetate CoA transferase and acetate kinase activities, and could produce butyrate from acetate (Duncan et al, 2002). Therefore, the proliferation of this species may partially illustrate the increase in butyrate and the decrease in acetate proportion after feeding diet II.…”

The networks of human gut microbe–metabolite associations are different between health and irritable bowel syndrome

“…Among the statistically significant relationships revealed in the kHLT data set, several have been previously uncovered. These included strong positive association between glucose level and Ruminococcus abundance (glucose is released by ruminococci during fermentation), negative relationship between glucose and Coprococcus (some coprococci use glucose under anaerobic conditions), and positive associations of Acidaminobacter, Coprococcus and Prevotella with acetate, valerate and fumarate, respectively, likely explained by the observed production of these metabolites by the members of these genera (Holdeman and Moore, 1974, Bergey and Holt, 1994, Takahashi and Yamada, 2000, Duncan et al, 2002, Iakiviak et al, 2011. Abundances of genera Bacteroides and Bifidobacterium, which contain many members with large repertoires of carbohydrate-degrading enzymes, were not associated significantly with any of the measured fermentation-derived metabolites, likely due to the ability of these organisms to switch from one carbohydrate to another based on luminal availability and thus produce a variety of fermentation products (Martens et al, 2011).…”