Human milk oligosaccharides as the bifidus factor: the mechanism underlying how bifidus flora is established in infant guts

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15H04481
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Applied microbiology
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Katayama Takane 京都大学, 生命科学研究科, 教授 (70346104)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 日高 將文 東北大学, 農学研究科, 助教 (00584848) ; 栗原 新 石川県立大学, 生物資源環境学部, 寄附講座准教授 (20630966) ; 廣瀬 潤子 滋賀県立大学, 人間文化学部, 准教授 (40381917)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 母乳オリゴ糖 / ビフィズス菌 / 共生 / 共進化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

It has long been known that bifidobaceria-rich microbiota (bifidus flora) is formed in breast-fed infant intestines; however the underlying mechanism has not been elucidated. We have found that infant gut-associated bifidobacteria have an ability to assimilate human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) that comprises the third most abundant solid component. In this study, we focused on lacto-N-biosidase, which hydrolyzes lacto-N-tetraose (the most abundant core HMO structure ), and revealed that the enzyme plays an important role in bifidus flora formation in infants. In addition, we succeeded in developing an efficient method to synthesize lacto-N-tetraose by mutating a relevant enzyme. The compound can be used for formula milk fortification.

Free Research Field

応用微生物学