Hey geomicrobiology and microbiome tweeps!

Do you know that the sulfosugar #sulfoquinovose (SQ) is a ubiquitous microbial nutrient in the environment and in a vegetarian diet?

No?

Here comes some SQ propaganda…a thread

#sulfurcycle #carboncycle #H2S #microbiome #diet
#sulfoquinovose is a sulfonated glucose and most often found as polar head group of sulfoquinovosyl diacylglycerol (SQDG), a ubiquitous sulfolipid in the photosynthetic membranes of all green land plants, algae, dinoflagellates, and cyanobacteria
SQDG is one of the most abundant organic sulfur compounds in the biosphere (production rate of 100,000,000,000 tons per year!) and can represent up to a third of the total lipids in leafy green vegetables #spinach #lettuce #greenonion
SQDG #sulfoquinovose are abundant sources of carbon and sulfur in the global nutrient cycles and substrates for the gut microbiota of animals/humans that like their greens

Think of popeye's diet #spinach 🥬as the ultimate #sulfoquinovose boost for your gut microbiota 😉
So how is all the #sulfoquinovose in the environment and our guts degraded?

Thanks to the work of team @DSchleheck

Three bacterial pathways for #sulfoquinovose degradation (sulfoglycolytic pathways) are currently known
All three #sulfoquinovose pathways encode a #sulfoquinovosidase (an alpha-glucosidase in the glycoside hydrolase family 31 - GH31) that cleaves SQ from SQ-glycosides such as SQDG
https://www.nature.com/articles/nchembio.2023
Aerobic and anaerobic glycolytic #sulfoquinovose (C6) degradation produces a classical C3-compound for growth – either pyruvate or dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP) – and a C3-sulfonate that is excreted – either sulfolactate or dihydroxypropanesulfonate (DHPS)
Sulfonates #DHPS are nutrients and energy sources for sulfur oxidizers in the pelagic ocean

Check out work by the teams of Mary Ann Moran & @BryndanDurham for more info!

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-019-0507-5
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-019-0250-1
Green-diet-derived #sulfoquinovose is an exclusive growth substrate and thus a potential prebiotic of some abundant bacterial commensals in the human gut

Yet, complete degradation of SQ by cross-feeding of #DHPS produces #H2S

Our new preprint https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-49676/latest
Eubacterium rectale and Bilophila wadsworthia cooperatively catabolize #sulfoquinovose to acetate and #H2S as main products in human fecal microcosms and in co-culture

Interspecies transfer of #DHPS links a green diet with #H2S production in the gut

#spinach #Popeye
Eubacterium rectale ferments #sulfoquinovose to DHPS via the SFT pathway

which is exclusive to E. rectale and few other intestinal Firmicutes species such as Feacalibacterium prausnitzii
Across the fecal metatranscriptomes of many individuals
#sulfoquinovose degradation was expressed prevalently and abundantly (top 33% of all microbial pathways)
and mostly by Eubacterium rectale and Feacalibacterium prausnitzii
Bilophila utilizes #DHPS as electron acceptor via a new oxygen-sensitive glycyl-radical enzyme that releases sulfite from DHPS for anaerobic respiration to #H2S via the DsrABC pathway

The DHPS sulfite-lyase cleaves #DHPS into hydroxyacetone and #sulfite

https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-49676/latest
In Bilophila and other bacteria, the DHPS sulfite-lyase is paralogous to isethionate sulfite-lyase, a key enzyme in anaerobic taurine degradation that was also discovered by the teams of @DSchleheck https://www.pnas.org/content/116/8/3171
and Yan Zhang https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09618-8
#metatranscriptome analysis of DsrABC-sulfite reduction and DHPS/isethionate sulfite-lyase activities suggested Bilophila and other Desulfovibrionaceae use mostly #taurine but also #DHPS for #H2S production in the human gut
Thanks for reading!

Keep in mind that #sulfoquinovose metabolism is a core physiological attribute of the human gut that is likely modifiable by diet - think of #Popeye #spinach 😉- and contributes to host health

https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-49676/latest

#H2S #acetate #microbiome #prebiotic
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