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Biochemistry

A wine-induced breakdown

Nature volume 544, pages 45–46 (2017)Cite this article

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A polysaccharide called rhamnogalacturonan II is a major component of some fruits, but humans rely on their gut microbiota to digest it. The microbes and processes responsible for this digestion have now been revealed. See Article p.65

When you sip a glass of wine, you might be feeding some of your gut bacteria their favourite food: a polysaccharide named rhamnogalacturonan II (RGII). This is because humans do not produce the enzymes needed to break down most of the polysaccharides in plant-based food1 into single sugar molecules, whereas some bacteria in the human gut flora (the microbiota) do. But precisely how the complex components of fruit cell walls, such as RGII, are decomposed in the human gut, and which microbes are responsible, was not known. Ndeh et al.2 report on page 65 that, surprisingly, bacterial consortia are not required — single bacterial strains common in most human gut microbiota possess the entire enzymatic system needed to break down and metabolize RGII.

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Figure 1: Schematic structure of rhamnogalacturonan II (RGII).

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  1. Mirjam Czjzek is in the Department of Integrative Biology of Marine Models, Station Biologique de Roscoff, Roscoff 29682, France.,

    Mirjam Czjzek

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  1. Mirjam Czjzek
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Correspondence to Mirjam Czjzek.

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Czjzek, M. A wine-induced breakdown. Nature 544, 45–46 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature21901

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