sulfoquinovose (SQ)
A critical discovery about how bacteria feed on an unusual sugar molecule found in leafy green vegetables could hold the key to explaining how ‘good’ bacteria protect our gut and promote health. Leafy greens are essential for feeding good gut bacteria, limiting the ability of bad bacteria to colonise the gut by shutting them out of the prime ‘real estate’.
Researchers identified a previously unknown enzyme used by bacteria, fungi and other organisms to feed on the unusual but abundant sugar sulfoquinovose (SQ) found in green vegetables. Each year, leafy green vegetables eg, spinach – produce the sugar on an enormous scale globally. The discovery could be exploited to cultivate the growth of ‘good’ gut bacteria. “Every time we eat leafy green vegetables we consume significant amounts of SQ sugars, which are used as an energy source by good gut bacteria,” he said.
“Bacteria in the gut, such as crucial protective strains of E. coli, use SQ as a source of energy. E. coli provides a protective barrier that prevents growth and colonisation by bad bacteria,” Dr Goddard-Borger said.
Professor Williams said: “We discovered the enzyme YihQ, which is used by bacteria to absorb and metabolise these sulfur-containing sugars as food,” he said. “Sulfur is critical for building proteins… SQ is the only sugar molecule which contains ulfur, and ‘digestion’ of the molecule by bacteria releases sulfur into the environment, where it re-enters the global ‘sulfur cycle’ to be reused by other organisms…This work answers a 50-year mystery that has surrounded how sulfur -an element essential for life on Earth – was used and recycled by living organisms,” he said. “What is remarkable is that the YihQ enzyme was hiding in plain sight and is produced by the humble bacterium E. coli, present in nearly every biologist’s laboratory.”
The discovery may lead to an entirely new class of antibiotics, Dr Goddard-Borger said. “We think it will be possible to use these widespread enzymes to enable highly specific delivery of antibiotics to harmful forms of E. coli and other pathogens, such as Salmonella, responsible for food poisoning, while leaving the good gut bacteria untouched.” http://www.wehi.edu.au/news/sweet-discovery-leafy-greens-holds-key-gut-health
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