Diet significantly influences the composition of the gut microbiome, and differences in diet-microbiome interactions may lead to varying health outcomes.
Building on previous research into medical drugs and gut bacteria, Yale scientists aimed to explore why individuals have varying responses to the same foods. They have created the first systematic map to show how the molecules in certain foods interact with our unique gut bacteria.
While much research has focused on the effects of macronutrients like fiber on gut microbiomes, more needs to be understood about how other small molecules in food impact health. There is limited evidence on specific dietary changes that could help manage disease risk factors like diabetes or cancer. This may be due to the differing responses of individual microbiomes to the same food molecules.
The scientists created a systematic map of interactions between small molecules in food and various gut bacteria. This study is among the first to identify specific microbial genes involved in the metabolic transformation of dietary compounds and to elucidate how these compounds alter our microbiomes.
Using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, they combined different molecules with gut bacteria to develop growth models and maps for about 150 dietary xenobiotic compounds. Sequencing allowed the team to assess changes in the composition of the human gut community.
Andrew Goodman, C.N.H. Long Professor and Chair of Microbial Pathogenesis and Director of the Microbial Sciences Institute (MSI), said, “We were surprised by the level of variability. The same dietary compound could dramatically reshape some individuals’ gut microbial communities while almost not impacting other people’s microbiome.”
The molecular map offers a mechanism to explain individuals’ varied responses to dietary compounds, illustrating how these compounds influence gut microbe growth and are metabolically altered by the microbial community. Although predicting individual responses to specific foods—and their health implications—remains challenging, the findings provide a foundational understanding of how metabolic reactions differ among people and how these variations affect the growth of beneficial or harmful bacteria in the gut.
Elizabeth Culp, a former postdoctoral fellow in the Goodman Lab and the study’s first author, said, “If we can figure out the specific microbial genes that determine how a microbiome responds to a molecule in our food and how these genes are different between different people’s microbiomes, correlations to diseases like cancer, diabetes, or gastrointestinal infections can start to make sense.”
“This is the first step towards creating custom dietary recommendations as part of personalized nutrition strategies.”
Journal Reference:
- Elizabeth J. Culp ∙ Nora T. Nelson et al. Microbial transformation of dietary xenobiotics shapes gut microbiome composition. Cell. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.08.038