Posted by A recent study published by Bhagat et al. [1] aimed to investigate the functions of gut microbiota in broiler chickens in relation to several feed additives. The functional diversity of gut microbes in high-altitude (Northern India, in Ladakh – close to the Himalaya mountain range) and low-altitude adapted chickens (Ramgarh, India) were compared on different substrates.
Alpha-cyclodextrin was previously reported for its prebiotic benefits and for helping to alleviate or avoid metabolic illness [2]. Hence the justification on its selection amongst the studied substrates. Majorly, this substrate gets utilized by microbes through the production of the enzyme cyclodextrinase; however, microbes lacking cyclodextrinase enzyme production ability cannot readily utilize alpha-cyclodextrin [3]. Furthermore, alpha-cyclodextrin was also found to be linked with lactate and short-chain fatty acid production, which, consequently, improve gut immunity in the animal [2, 4]. Moreover, the gut microbes of high altitude were found to be scarcely catabolizing the alpha-cyclodextrin substrate compared to the low-altitude chickens. This is speculated to be due to the presence of microbes that do not have the potential to produce the enzyme cyclodextrinase in the sample.
This study raises the question whether similar diversity in the catabolism performed by human gut microflora may be documented as well.
- Bhagat, N.R., Chauhan, P., Verma, P. et al. High-altitude and low-altitude adapted chicken gut-microbes have different functional diversity. Sci Rep 13, 20856 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-48147-9
- Chikamoto, K. & Terao, K. Alpha-cyclodextrin functions as a dietary fiber. In Functionality of Cyclodextrins in Encapsulation for Food Applications (eds Ho, T. M. et al.) (Springer, 2021).
- Turroni F, Strati F, Foroni E, Serafini F, Duranti S, van Sinderen D, Ventura M. Analysis of predicted carbohydrate transport systems encoded by Bifidobacterium bifidum PRL2010. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 78(14), 5002–5012 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.00629-12.
- Li, Z., Chen, S., Gu, Z., Chen, J. & Wu, J. Alpha-cyclodextrin: Enzymatic production and food applications. Trends Food Sci. Technol. 35(2), 151–160 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2013.11.005