(A) Deconjugation ability of twenty prevalent Bacteroidetes strains and two Firmicutes strains found in the human gut represented as heat maps. Individual strains were incubated for 48 hr total with a group of glyco- or tauro-conjugated bile acids found in human and murine GI tracts. G (glyco-), T (tauro-), CA (cholic acid), CDCA (chenodeoxycholic acid), UDCA (ursodeoxycholic acid), DCA (deoxycholic acid), LCA (lithocholic acid), βMCA (β-muricholic acid). Assays were performed in biological duplicate. Group I (red): Bacteroidetes species that deconjugate primary bile acids based on steroidal core structure (C12 = H but not C12 = OH); Group II (gray): species that deconjugate based on amino acid conjugate; Group III (blue): species that deconjugate all bile acid substrates; Group IV (black): no deconjugation observed. (B) Representative UPLC-MS timecourses for deconjugation of TDCA and TLCA showing that steady state has been reached by 48 hr. (C) Representative UPLC-MS traces showing that Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron wild-type (Bt WT) and BtΔ1259 deconjugate TUDCA, whereas BtΔ2086 does not. BtΔ2086,2086 + recovered the deconjugation function while the BtΔ2086,CTRL +control strain containing an empty pNBU2 vector did not, demonstrating that BT2086 is responsible for bile salt hydrolase activity in Bt. (D) Representative UPLC-MS traces showing that Bt WT deconjugates the murine primary bile acid TβMCA but not TCA, whereas BTΔ2086 (Bt KO) does not deconjugate either bile acid.