Dietary nutrients shape gut microbes and intestinal mucosa via epigenetic modifications

Abstract

The imbalance of intestinal microecology firstly impairs intestinal mucosa barrier and function, then further damages the functions and homeostasis of distal organs, leading to systemic diseases. Nutrients, transplantation of bacteria flora and modes of life can shape gut microbiota and intestinal mucosa barrier and mitigate stress. Current researches demonstrate that dynamic epigenetic modifications of intestinal tissue strongly mediate the crosstalk between gut microbes and gut mucosa barrier. Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species can synthesize folate to increase DNA methylation and mRNA N6-methyladenosine (m6A) of gut, which ensures intestinal normal development. Clostridial cluster, Anaerostipes and Eubacterium can induce histone acylation modifications by butyrate to enhance the development and immune balance of gut. Herein, we summarizes the present scientific understanding of how dietary nutrients shape gut microbiota and further regulate intestinal mucosa functions via epigenetic modifications, which will shed light on manipulation of gut microbiota by dietary nutrients, for prevention or clinical treatment of intestinal diseases.

Keywords:

• Dietary nutrients
• gut microbiota
• intestinal mucosa
• epigenetic modification
• methylation
• acetylation
• crotonylation

Acknowledgements

Our profound admiration and respect go to researchers in this field and in our laboratories for their dedication and hard work. We apologize to scientists whose work is in this field but their papers are not cited in this review owing to space limitations.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFD0500601 and 2017YFD0500501), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31930106, 31829004 and 31722054), the National Ten-thousand Talents Program of China (23070201), the Key Research & Developmental Program of Shandong Province (2019JZZY020308), and the 111 Project (B16044).