Cited by 311Gut microbiota and healthOral microbiology and periodontitis researchInfant Nutrition and Health

Characterizing the mucin-degrading capacity of the human gut microbiota

Open access
Glover, Janiece S., Ticer, Taylor D., Engevik, Melinda A.·2022·Scientific Reports

Abstract

Mucin-degrading microbes are known to harbor glycosyl hydrolases (GHs) which cleave specific glycan linkages. Although several microbial species have been identified as mucin degraders, there are likely many other members of the healthy gut community with the capacity to degrade mucins. The aim of the present study was to systematically examine the CAZyme mucin-degrading profiles of the human gut microbiota. Within the Verrucomicrobia phylum, all Akkermansia glycaniphila and muciniphila genomes harbored multiple gene copies of mucin-degrading GHs. The only representative of the Lentisphaerae phylum, Victivallales, harbored a GH profile that closely mirrored Akkermansia. In the Actinobacteria phylum, we found several Actinomadura, Actinomyces, Bifidobacterium, Streptacidiphilus and Streptomyces species with mucin-degrading GHs. Within the Bacteroidetes phylum, Alistipes, Alloprevotella, Bacteroides, Fermenitomonas Parabacteroides, Prevotella and Phocaeicola species had mucin degrading GHs. Firmicutes contained Abiotrophia, Blautia, Enterococcus, Paenibacillus, Ruminococcus, Streptococcus, and Viridibacillus species with mucin-degrading GHs. Interestingly, far fewer mucin-degrading GHs were observed in the Proteobacteria phylum and were found in Klebsiella, Mixta, Serratia and Enterobacter species. We confirmed the mucin-degrading capability of 23 representative gut microbes using a chemically defined media lacking glucose supplemented with porcine intestinal mucus. These data greatly expand our knowledge of microbial-mediated mucin degradation within the human gut microbiota.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/s41598-022-11819-z

Cites

45 of 45 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. [36]Plugge, C. M. & Zoetendal, E. G. In The Prokaryotes: Other Major Lineages of Bacteria and The Archaea (eds Rosenberg, E. et al.) 1019–1021 (Springer, 2014).

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Glover, J. S., Ticer, T. D., & Engevik, M. A.
Affiliations
Medical University of South Carolina (US)
Corresponding author
Engevik, Melinda A.
Venue
Scientific Reports
Published
2022-05-19
Volume
12
Issue
1
Pages
8456-8456
ISSN
2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W4280576091
Cited by
307
References
45
Citations by year
2026: 68 · 2025: 90 · 2024: 90 · 2023: 48 · 2022: 11
FWCI
19.84
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of General Medical Sciences (1T32GM132055-01)
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (1T32DK124191-01A1, DK123195-01)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
  • Health Sciences › Dentistry › Periodontics › Oral microbiology and periodontitis research
  • Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Infant Nutrition and Health
Keywords
mucin degradation, human gut microbiome, glycoside hydrolases, carbohydrate-active enzymes, Akkermansia, Verrucomicrobia, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, actinobacteria, mucus
MeSH terms
Clostridiales, Eubacteriales, Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Animals, Humans, Mucins, Polysaccharides, Swine, Verrucomicrobia

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review