Curcumin is a widely used yellow pigment exhibiting a variety of beneficial health effects. Our previous data have shown that human gut microflora can metabolize curcumin to produce metabolites with important biological activities. However, the identities of the bacteria and the bacterial genes involved in curcumin metabolism have been poor studied. We hypothesized that the curcumin-metabolizing bacteria possess unique genes dedicated to curcumin metabolism which influence the bioavailability and anti-inflammatory effects to the human host. We surveyed the interactions between curcumin and 13 strains from human fecal bacteria, and cell-free supernatants were profiled for targeted metabolites using HPLC. For the first time, we identified three strains that were capable of metabolizing curcumin to produce its hydrogenated products and ferulic acid. Next, we sequenced the whole genome of each bacterium using Illumina HiSeq platform, and ran the large-scale BLAST score ratio (LS-BSR) pipeline to identify the unique genes that were potentially involved in curcumin metabolism. In conclusion, we use a combination of metabolic and genetics profiling to identify and characterize three gut symbionts Lactobacillus gasseri, Bifidobacterium bifidum and Bifidobacterium infantis that generated bioactive curcumin-metabolites. These results emphasized the importance of gut microbial genomes in biotransformation of food components and its impact on human health.

Identification and characterization of curcumin-metabolizing gut bacteria

2019 Fall National Meeting

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