Prebiotics: Metabolism, Structure, and Function

Abstract

Prebiotics are a type of functional food ingredient that positively modulates the gut microbiota, thus improving and maintaininghealth. However, information on prebiotic metabolism and uptake in the gut environment is currently scarce. One interestingresearch strategy is to look at prebiotic structures that influence such metabolism. Current prebiotics constitute a range ofcarbohydrate structures with varying effects on the populations of bacteria and metabolites produced within the colonic ecosystem.Advances in molecular microbiology techniques, such as 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid sequencing and metagenomics approaches,are increasing our understanding of the complex gut microbiota and might enable us to develop novel prebiotics by predictiveunderstanding of how specific carbohydrate structures are fermented by the gut microbiota. This review focuses on currentunderstanding of prebiotic metabolism and structure-function relationships.Key words: prebiotics, oligosaccharides, functional foods, gut health