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Carbohydrate complexity structures stable diversity in gut-derived microbial consortia under high dilution pressure

Dietary fibers are major substrates for the colonic microbiota, but the structural specificity of these fibers for the diversity, structure, and function of gut microbial communities are poorly understood. Here, we employed an in vitro sequential batch fecal culture approach to determine: 1) whether the chemical complexity of a carbohydrate structure influences its ability to maintain microbial diversity in the face of high dilution pressure and 2) whether substrate structuring or obligate microbe-microbe metabolic interactions (e.g. exchange of amino acids or vitamins) exert more influence on maintained diversity. Sorghum arabinoxylan (SAX, complex polysaccharide), inulin (low-complexity oligosaccharide) and their corresponding monosaccharide controls were selected as model carbohydrates. Our results demonstrate that complex carbohydrates stably sustain diverse microbial consortia. Further, very similar final consortia were enriched on SAX from the same individual’s fecal microbiota across a one-month interval, suggesting that polysaccharide structure is more influential than stochastic alterations in microbiome composition in governing the outcomes of sequential batch cultivation experiments. SAX-consuming consortia were anchored by Bacteroides ovatus and retained diverse consortia of >12 OTUs; whereas final inulin-consuming consortia were dominated either by Klebsiella pneumoniae or Bifidobacterium sp. and Escherichia coli. Furthermore, auxotrophic interactions were less influential in structuring microbial consortia consuming SAX than the less-complex inulin. These data suggest that carbohydrate structural complexity affords independent niches that structure fermenting microbial consortia, whereas other metabolic interactions govern the composition of communities fermenting simpler carbohydrates. IMPORTANCE The mechanisms by which gut microorganisms compete for and cooperate on human-indigestible carbohydrates of varying structural complexity remain unclear. Gaps in this understanding make it challenging to predict the effect of a particular dietary fiber’s structure on the diversity, composition, or function of gut microbiomes, especially with inter-individual variability in diets and microbiomes. Here, we demonstrate that carbohydrate structure governs the diversity of gut microbiota under high dilution pressure, suggesting that such structures may support microbial diversity in vivo. Further, we also demonstrate that carbohydrate polymers are not equivalent in the strength by which they influence community structure and function, and that metabolic interactions among members arising due to auxotrophy exert significant influence on the outcomes of these competitions for simpler polymers. Collectively, these data suggest that large, complex dietary fiber polysaccharides structure the human gut ecosystem in ways that smaller and simpler ones may not.