Research Progress of Polysaccharide Utilization Loci and Its Application in Pharmacological Research of Chinese Medicinal Herb / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

Polysaccharide utilization loci (PULs) are a group of gene clusters related to polysaccharides catabolism and located in specific areas, including starch utilization system(SusC), SusD, encoding outer membrane glycoprotein binding proteins, and carbohydrate active enzymes. The wide existence of PULs in Bacteroides, and the extraordinary ability of utilizing polysaccharide is its survival strategy to adapt to the intestinal tract. On one hand, Bacteroides feature a high abundance and variety, making it the most important bacterial target group regulated by traditional Chinese medicine(TCM). On the other hand, polysaccharide is an important effective constituent among TCM chemicals, with a high content, and can also be used as a competitive carbon source for intestinal bacteria. Therefore, what is the mechanism of regulating the intestinal flora based on the carbon source of polysaccharide is an important part of the pharmacological research of TCM. According to the latest literatures, this paper introduces the gene and protein composition of PULs, reviews the latest developments in PULs research, and analyzes the structure of PULs in the genomes of Bacteroides fragilis and Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron. Furthermore, we also put forward a prospect for the pharmacological micro-ecological mechanism of TCM based on PULs based on our carbon source experiments, which focuses the effects of Bacteroides by TCM polysaccharides in vitro. This research is not only the new content of bacterial PULs researches, but also the important part of researches of "human-drug-bacteria" holistic view and TCM spleen-tonifying concept.