2025-08-27 マックス・プランク研究所
Electron microscopic image of rod-shaped gut bacteria. © Bacteria in the gut. NIH Image Gallery/Donny Bliss, NIH
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ヒト腸内微生物叢における化学感覚受容体の特異性 Specificities of chemosensory receptors in the human gut microbiota
Wenhao Xu, Ekaterina Jalomo-Khayrova, Vadim M. Gumerov, +5 , and Victor Sourjik
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Published:August 26, 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2508950122
Significance
Environmental sensing is highly important for bacterial growth and survival in diverse habitats, but the sensory repertoire of bacterial receptors remains largely uncharacterized. While most previous studies have focused on individual model organisms, here we took a habitat-centric approach, systematically identifying chemically diverse ligands of selected Cache-type domains from a set of nonmodel bacteria inhabiting a particular ecological niche, the human gut. Our analyses provided important insights into the sensory and metabolic preferences of motile commensal bacteria in the human gut microbiota, indicating the prevalence of cross-feeding mediated by short-chain carboxylic acids. Furthermore, we biochemically and structurally characterized several specificities of Cache domains and demonstrated a surprisingly high evolvability of these sensors toward metabolites relevant to the gut microbiota.
