Structure and function of non-digestible carbohydrates in the gut microbiome – Sponsored session at Beneficial Microbes 2022

Together with proteins and fats, carbohydrates are one of the macronutrients in the human diet. Digestible carbohydrates, such as starch, starch-based products, sucrose, lactose, glucose and some sugar alcohols and unusual (and fairly rare) α-linked glucans, directly provide us with energy while other carbohydrates including high molecular weight polysaccharides, mainly from plant cell walls, provide us with dietary fibre. Carbohydrates which are efficiently digested in the small intestine are not available in appreciable quantities to act as substrates for gut bacteria. Some oligo- and polysaccharides, many of which are also dietary fibres, are resistant to digestion in the small intestines and enter the colon where they provide substrates for the complex bacterial ecosystem that resides there.

This session focused on what we know and what we need to know about the structure-function relationship in dietary carbohydrates. Of particular focus was the systematic effects of prebiotics, modelling prebiotic activity, as well as enabling technologies for future prebiotics.