How do infant gut microbes use N-glycans from breast milk as a nutrient source?

人类肠道微生物区系与宿主之间存在互惠互利的关系，对宿主的健康、发育和疾病产生了深刻但鲜为人知的影响。多糖是肠道微生物区系的主要营养来源，例如，它们可以来自人类糖蛋白的膳食纤维。双歧杆菌是婴儿肠道中的优势细菌，对健康肠道的发育至关重要。母乳含有许多生物活性成分，这些成分已经进化成专门用于喂养婴儿肠道中的双歧杆菌物种。该项目将确定这些物种如何利用母乳蛋白上的N-葡聚糖作为营养来源。将结合使用多种技术，包括：细菌生长、糖类和糖类分析、酶的生产和酶的特性。

The human gut microbiota has a mutualistic relationship with the host, creating a profound but poorly understood impact of host health, development, and disease. Glycans are the main nutrient source for the gut microbiota and these can come from dietary fibre of human glycoproteins, for example. Species of Bifidobacterium are the dominant bacteria found in an infant's gut and are critical to the development of a healthy gut. Breast milk contains numerous bioactive components that have evolved to specifically feed Bifidobacterium species present in an infant's gut. This project will determine how N-glycans on breast milk proteins are used as a nutrients source by these species. A combination of techniques will be used, including: bacterial growth, glycan and sugar analysis, enzyme production, and enzyme characterisation.