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Published on: August 23, 2019
Digestive and fermentative characteristics of B-type maize starch associated with microbiota-metabolite remodeling
Xuechun Zhang1, Han Li1, Rongrong Ma1
1State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Resources, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, China; School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, China.
Abstract:
Among different types of resistant starch (RS), high-amylose maize starch serves as a representative B-type starch (B-type) sample and exhibits strong digestive resistance. However, the relationships among its structure-derived digestive resistance, microbial metabolism, intestinal epithelial stem cell activity, and barrier-related phenotypes remain unclear. In this study, common maize starch and high-amylose maize starch were used as representative A-type starch (A-type) and B-type samples, respectively. Multiscale structural characterization, in vitro digestion, fecal fermentation, 16S rRNA gene sequencing, untargeted metabolomics, and a mouse colonic organoid model were integrated. Compared with A-type, B-type showed smaller and more heterogeneous granules, a distinct crystalline structure, altered short-range order, and higher thermal transition temperatures. The hydrolysis index decreased from 98.03% in A-type to 82.14% in B-type, whereas RS content increased from 15.71% to 24.57%, together with slower hydrolysis. During in vitro fermentation, B-type reshaped the bacterial community structure and increased the relative abundances of Bifidobacterium adolescentis and Bacteroides ovatus compared with A-type. These shifts were accompanied by differences in PICRUSt2-predicted microbial functional potential and fermentation metabolite profiles, mainly involving amino acid, central carbon, and coenzyme-related metabolism. B-type fermentation supernatant produced the strongest organoid budding response, with significantly more buds than the control and A-type groups. Lgr5 and ChgA signals were also higher than in the A-type group, consistent with stronger epithelial stem-cell activity and differentiation-related phenotypes. Integrated correlation analysis and structural equation modeling showed positive associations among starch resistance, microbiota remodeling, predicted microbial functional potential, metabolite shifts, and epithelial growth- and barrier-related phenotypes.
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