Fig. 6. 2’FL exerts beneficial effects on functionally matching microbiomes.
Infant 1 and Infant 2 both consisted of a Bifidobacterium breve strain (purple) that cannot metalize 2’FL itself. The main difference between these two infant microbiomes is the presence (Infant 1) or absence (Infant 2) of an extracellular-fucosidase-encoding Ruminococcus gnavus strain (green). When feeding these two infants with the same 2’FL-supplemented drink, only Infant 1’s gut microbiome was positively modified. This is mainly due to R. gnavus breaking 2’FL into fucose and lactose, which can be used by B. breve and other community members for growth. Infant 2, which lacks R. gnavus, minimally changed following feeding. Figure created with BioRender.