Study of the physiological role of bile salt hydrolase from Lactobacilli

BUSTOS AY, FONT G, MOZZI F, RAYA R, TARANTO MP

Egmond aan Zee, Holanda

Simposio; 9th Symposium on Lactic Acid bacteria. Health, Evolution and Systems Biology.; 2008

<!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:70.85pt 3.0cm 70.85pt 3.0cm; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> Conjugated Bile Acids (BA), which facilitates lipid digestion and absorption in the intestine, are modified by numerous microbial transformations. One of these transformations is the hydrolysis of the amide bond by the enzyme Bile Salt Hydrolase (BSH) to release free amino acid (taurine or glycine) and the unconjugated BA. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the significance of BSH activity: nutritional role, bile detoxification, gastrointestinal persistence, etc. Nevertheless the precise function(s) of microbial BSHs is currently unknown.