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Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOS) are not digested in the proximal intestine. In distal intestine, HMOS collectively modify the microbiota, but the response of individual bacteria to individual components of the HMOS is not well defined. Here, each of 25 major isolates of the human intestinal microbiota was fed individual major fucosylated and sialylated HMOS in anaerobic culture. This allowed for an assessment of the influence of specific HMOS on the growth and metabolic products of individual microbiota bacteria. Most Bifidobacteria spp. and Bacteroides spp. grew, induced α-l-fucosidase activity, and produced abundant lactate or short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) when fed 2′-fucosyllactose (2′-FL), 3-FL, and lactodifucotetraose (LDFT). Lactobacillus delbrueckii ATCC7830, Enterococcus faecalis ATCC19433, and Streptococcus thermophilus ATCC19258 exhibited slight growth, pH reduction, and lactate production when supplemented with 2′-FL or 3-FL, but not LDFT. Supplementation with 3′-sialyllactose (3′-SL) and 6′-SL promoted moderate growth of Bifidobacterium longum JCM7007, 7009, 7010, 7011, 1272, 11347, ATCC15708, Bacteroides vulgatus ATCC8482, and B. thetaiotaomicron ATCC29148; accordingly, these bacteria exhibited greater neuraminidase activity and produced copious lactate, SCFA, or both. Lactobacillus delbrueckii ATCC7830 also consumed 6′-SL. In contrast, Clostridium spp., L. rhamnosus ATCC53103, E. faecalis ATCC29200, Staphylococcus spp., Enterobacter spp., and Escherichia coli K12 did not consume milk oligosaccharides nor produce appreciable acidic fermentation products. Specific Bifidobacteria and Bacteroides differentially digest specific individual HMOS, with the major fucosylated milk oligosaccharides most strongly stimulating key species of mutualist symbionts. This suggests strategies for treating dysbiosis of the microbiota and associated inflammatory disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Fucosylated carbohydrates and glycoproteins from human breast milk are essential for the development of the gut microbiota in early life because they are selectively metabolized by bifidobacteria. In this regard, α-L-fucosidases play a key role in this successful bifidobacterial colonization allowing the utilization of these substrates. Although a considerable number of α-L-fucosidases from bifidobacteria have been identified by computational analysis, only a few of them have been characterized. Hitherto, α-L-fucosidases are classified into three families: GH29, GH95, and GH151, based on their catalytic structure. However, bifidobacterial α-L-fucosidases belonging to a particular family show significant differences in their sequence. Because this fact could underlie distinct phylogenetic evolution, here extensive similarity searches and comparative analyses of the bifidobacterial α-L-fucosidases identified were carried out with the assistance of previous physicochemical studies available. This work reveals four and two paralogue bifidobacterial fucosidase groups within GH29 and GH95 families, respectively. Moreover, Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis species exhibited the greatest number of phylogenetic lineages in their fucosidases clustered in every family: GH29, GH95, and GH151. Since α-L-fucosidases phylogenetically descended from other glycosyl hydrolase families, we hypothesized that they could exhibit additional glycosidase activities other than fucosidase, raising the possibility of their application to transfucosylate substrates other than lactose in order to synthesis novel prebiotics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]