This suggests that probiotic Akkermansia can engraft and exert its potentially beneficial effects on the host without inducing major compositional and functional changes in the gut microbiota. 🎉

However, this is also an invitation for further research, as these findings are from in vitro work. 🧪

Metaproteomics revealed that A. muciniphila uses some of its most important mucin glycan-degrading enzymes to claim a niche. ✂️

The introduction of Akkermansia did not induce major compositional changes, but Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron increased whereas Bacteroides caccae was reduced. 👀

We studied the engraftment of Akkermansia in vitro by introducing it to our mucin-degrading synthetic community (MDSC). 👩‍🔬

We fed the community mucin glycans. 🍬

Even though all these mucin glycans were already degraded by the community without A. muciniphila, it could still engraft! 💪

🍼 The full paper is published in @femsjournals.bsky.social Microbiology Ecology👇

#microsky

doi.org/10.1093/fems...