The role of colonic microbiota amino acid metabolism in gut health regulation
Youli Chen,
Jing-Yuan Fang
Affiliations
Youli Chen
State Key Laboratory of Systems Medicine for Cancer, NHC Key Laboratory of Digestive Diseases, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Shanghai Institute of Digestive Disease, Renji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200001, China
Jing-Yuan Fang
Corresponding author. State Key Laboratory of Systems Medicine for Cancer; NHC Key Laboratory of Digestive Diseases, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Shanghai Institute of Digestive Disease, Renji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 145 Middle Shandong Road, Shanghai, 200001 , China.; State Key Laboratory of Systems Medicine for Cancer, NHC Key Laboratory of Digestive Diseases, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Shanghai Institute of Digestive Disease, Renji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200001, China
The human gut microbiota plays a critical role in maintaining host homeostasis through metabolic activities. Among these, amino acid (AA) metabolism by the microbiota in the large intestine is highly heterogeneous and relevant to host health. Despite increasing interest, microbial AA metabolism remains relatively unexplored. This review highlights recent advances in colonic microbial AA metabolism, including auxotrophies, AA synthesis, and dissimilatory AA metabolites, and their implications in gut health, focusing on major gastrointestinal diseases including colorectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, and irritable bowel syndrome.
