Phytate culturomics WGS sequencing
Phytate is the primarily storage form of phosphorous in plants and abundant in seeds. Phytases produced by intestinal bacteria are assumed to continuously release myo-inositol (myo-Ins), which is a readily available growth source for many bacterial species in in the gut. Animal food is often supplemented with microbial phytases to foster the dephosphorylation of phytate and thus to increase the availability of phosphate. Here, we established an experimental culturomics approach of the intestinal microbiome from piglets to identify bacterial species with the capability to produce phytases. Whole genome sequencing revealed 40 distinct bacterial strains potentially involved in phytate dephosphorylation. The results are expected to improve our understanding of the phytate fate following ingestion to increase phosphate availability in the gut and thus to reduce eutrophication.