Cited by 38Gut microbiota and healthMicrobial Community Ecology and PhysiologyBacterial biofilms and quorum sensing

Carbohydrate complexity limits microbial growth and reduces the sensitivity of human gut communities to perturbations

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Ostrem Loss, Erin, Thompson, Jaron, Cheung, Pak Lun Kevin, Qian, Yili, Venturelli, Ophelia S.·2023·Nature Ecology & Evolution

Abstract

Dietary fibre impacts the growth dynamics of human gut microbiota, yet we lack a detailed and quantitative understanding of how these nutrients shape microbial interaction networks and responses to perturbations. By building human gut communities coupled with computational modelling, we dissect the effects of fibres that vary in chemical complexity and each of their constituent sugars on community assembly and response to perturbations. We demonstrate that the degree of chemical complexity across different fibres limits microbial growth and the number of species that can utilize these nutrients. The prevalence of negative interspecies interactions is reduced in the presence of fibres compared with their constituent sugars. Carbohydrate chemical complexity enhances the reproducibility of community assembly and resistance of the community to invasion. We demonstrate that maximizing or minimizing carbohydrate competition between resident and invader species enhances resistance to invasion. In sum, the quantitative effects of carbohydrate chemical complexity on microbial interaction networks could be exploited to inform dietary and bacterial interventions to modulate community resistance to perturbations.

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  • Dietary fiber promotes resistance of human gut microbiota to perturbations by limiting microbial growth and balancing positive and negative interspecies interactions.

    “dietary fiber also promotes resistance of human gut microbiota to perturbations by limiting microbial growth and balancing the positive and negative interspecies interactions.”

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  1. [59]Bishop CM Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning (Information Science and Statistics). (Springer-Verlag, 2006).
  2. [90]Maindonald J. Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning. Journal of Statistical Software 17, (Springer-Verlag, 2007).
  3. [92]Munsky B Hlavacek William S., Tsimring Lev S., Quantitative biology. Theory, computational methods, and models (The MIT Press, 2018).

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Authors
Ostrem Loss, E., Thompson, J., Cheung, P. L. K., Qian, Y., & Venturelli, O. S.
Affiliations
University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
Corresponding author
Venturelli, Ophelia S.
Venue
Nature Ecology & Evolution
Published
2023-01-05
Volume
7
Issue
1
Pages
127-142
ISSN
2397-334X (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W4313562045
Cited by
38
References
102
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 4
FWCI
3.39
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Ecology & Evolution (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | Office of Extramural Research, National Institutes of Health (R35GM124774)
  • United States Department of Defense | United States Army | U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command | Army Research Office (W911NF1910269)
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (R01EB030340)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Bacterial biofilms and quorum sensing
Keywords
dietary fiber, human gut microbiome, microbial growth, community assembly, invasion resistance, interspecies interactions, negative interactions, synthetic microbial communities
MeSH terms
Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Sugars, Bacteria, Carbohydrates, Humans, Reproducibility of Results

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