Sugar-Consuming Healthy Gut Bacteria Analyzed for First Time
Colon-dwelling Akkermansia muciniphila associated with good health, feed on mucus.

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A microbe found in the lower part of the gut that is associated with good health has been comprehensively analyzed and found to have a focused diet breaking down sugars locked away in mucus.
The new study, published in Nature Microbiology is a complete systematic analysis of how the human colonic beneficial microbe, Akkermansia muciniphila (A. muciniphila) feeds on types of sugar found in the mucus secreted in the digestive system. The study focused on 66 enzymes that the A. muciniphila microbe uses to break down mucus which is an essential part of the mucus layer that lines the human gastrointestinal tract.
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Subscribe for FREEUsing mucus taken from a pig model, the team led by Dr. Lucy Crouch from the University of Birmingham found that a combination of enzymes from A. muciniphila was able to completely break down the mucin. This establishes the first comprehensive understanding of the molecular mechanisms behind how any microbe breaks down the O-linked sugars.
Dr. Lucy Crouch, Sir Henry Dale Fellow at the University of Birmingham and corresponding author of the study said:
“This is the first time that we have comprehensively seen how microbes break down the food source O-linked sugars in the gut. This is the first time that a set of enzymes has been used to completely break down the glycan part of mucin. These newly characterized enzymes may be used in characterizing the different glycans that humans produce, which can be indicative of disease.
“These glycans, and others like them, are receptors for a variety of pathogens and their toxins, such as Shiga toxin. So, if we can modify the glycans, we may be able to change the severity of disease.
“A. muciniphila proteins and outer membrane extracts of A. muciniphila have been shown to exert positive effects on the host e.g. a positive effect on metabolism. Some of these proteins interact with host receptors to likely suppress an immune response. A. muciniphila is relatively close the host as it wants the mucus we produce so we probably interact with it in many different ways.
“We know that A. muciniphila is a hugely important microbe, and levels of the microbe can be a good indicator of overall health. The bacteria are always beneficial for the gut, and lower levels of it are associated with inflammatory diseases and diabetes. A. muciniphila is hugely sensitive to decreasing levels of fiber in the diet too.”
Reference: Bakshani CR, Ojuri TO, Pilgaard B, et al. Carbohydrate-active enzymes from Akkermansia muciniphila break down mucin O-glycans to completion. Nat Microbiol. 2025. doi: 10.1038/s41564-024-01911-7
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