Fig. 1. Analytical pipeline and description of glycan compositions and fermentation dynamics.

a Schematic representation of the analytical pipeline. b–f Monosaccharide compositions and fermentation dynamics of 653 SGs and 110 reference glycans. b Percentages of SGs (yellow) and reference glycans (indigo) containing various monosaccharide types. c Number of monosaccharide types composing each SG or reference glycan. d Distribution of weight average molecular weights of SGs measured by SEC. e–g Growth (OD₆₀₀) and pH dynamics of triplicate fecal cultures fermenting 5 g l⁻¹ of a single SG or reference glycan in MM29 medium. e Hierarchical clustering of glycans into five fermentation groups based on twelve growth and pH parameters. Bars below the dendrogram show compound class: SG (yellow), reference glycan (indigo), or no glycan (magenta). Mean (f) growth and (g) pH curves (±SD) for each glycan fermentation group shown in e. Source data are provided as a Source Data file. SGs Synthetic Glycans, SEC size exclusion chromatography, OD₆₀₀ optical density at 600 nm, SD standard deviation, kDa kilodalton.